Swimming Upstream

In the ethereal world of politics, one topic that has caused me great consternation is the debate over illegal immigration. Ideologically, it makes sense to secure one's borders, if for no other reason than national security. Common sense dictates that you can't just have anyone coming into the country who might be carrying a suitcase nuclear weapon. In this regard, the debate is, intellectually, a moot one.

Then, there is the practical world we live in. Hispanics have been sneaking into our country for decades to find work. Migrant workers out west were always allowed in to provide the labor not otherwise available to pick crops for the agricultural industry. We just looked the other way. It was a convenient and symbiotic partnership that provided a win-win situation. That, of course, paved the way for a flood of illegal aliens into the United States during the last half of the 20th century and the proverbial caca began to hit the fan. Many unskilled and semi-skilled based businesses began to choose the cheap labor from across the border rather than the more expensive domestic laborer. Soon, more ambitious immigrants started their own businesses with this cheap resource, effectively putting American small enterprises out of business.

Nowhere has this impact been felt more profoundly than in the construction trades. We in the industry have witnessed an entire generation of craftsmen displaced through this invasion. Stone masons, carpenters, painters, roofers, electricians and so forth have become predominately of a foreign extract and the American component has dwindled away. For this reason alone, there has been a lot of animosity towards illegal immigration and the loss of "craftsmanship" that many feel has been lost, forever. In reality, the only remaining craftsmen who can survive do so in the high-end niche of home building and commercial finish-out trades. A few "natives", employing foreign labor, survive by running the largely illegal crews so that they can compete cost-wise with purely foreign crews.

The last two years have been withering for the foreign workers. Many have returned home. Others survive in a catch-as-catch-can attitude towards work. Some headed into commercial construction with their American counterparts, only to face what appears to be a looming meltdown in commercial construction. But I intended this to be a human interest piece. It is about a young man we'll call Paco. We won't divulge his real name as he is an illegal alien.

Paco came to America, illegally, 12 years ago when he was 13. He has worked hard and now owns a home (in a legal relative's name), has a beautiful wife who is legal and two children. He did a lot of trim carpentry for me and is quite gifted at what he does. He lives in a metro Atlanta county that is, let's say, trying very hard to crack down on illegals. His brother (who is a citizen) has been stopped by this county's police forces several times, roughed up a couple of times and generally been harassed to the point that he's moving elsewhere. Bravo, say some. Paco's wife, again, a citizen, has had the same treatment in the same county. Tough break, say others.

Without getting bogged down in that story, however, it is incumbent on me to comment on Paco's character. He is doggedly honest, despite being cheated out of money by others. Paco is a tireless worker, who gives everything he has to produce the best possible outcome for those who employ him. He is generous to a fault. In other words, Paco's crime of coming here illegally is not important to me. He has helped me renovate the exterior of my home charging me only for his discounted time and actual material costs. The other day, when I told him that I was over budget and would have to complete some incidental work on my own, he told me: "No, I will finish what I started - no charge!" I just looked at him amazed and he said, "Don't worry. You are my friend." How would I feel if he were deported? Crushed.

This is my dilemma. I support the idea of secure borders. But in my experience, I have never seen people work so hard, for so little, to the benefit of Americans in general. Both the industry who profits from them, and the home buyers and commercial lease holders who pay less because of this cheap labor, we all have benefited from their presence. Many of them I call my friends. The economy has reduced the sense of urgency of the issue in that the border crossing has now become stagnant. I will forever be torn, though, as my heart and my head cannot come to terms as to what is fair.