Letters

I enjoyed the article "Statue of Liberty or Minutemen?" by R. Craig Silvertooth, NRCA's director of federal affairs, which gave an update on proposed legislation regarding working immigrants (see September issue, page 19). There are so many myths about undocumented workers. I hear them all the time from my "conservative" friends.

The first myth is undocumented workers work for "depressed wages." When we hire a new roofing worker, we assume he is documented properly and ask him to produce documents that indicate it. We wouldn't know how to discriminate against an "illegal" worker even if we were inclined to. The least expensive wage earner we have makes $8.50 per hour, and he is unskilled personnel.

The second myth is undocumented workers use up our scarce social services, medical services, etc. This myth really bothers me. The immigrants we encounter in our industry are young men, mostly single, who don't have medical needs. We've never had any roofing employees fail a drug test.

The third myth is that undocumented workers don't pay taxes. Ridiculous! These "illegal" immigrants have and are paying billions of dollars into our social security and Medicare systems from which they never will receive a nickel!

The idea that employers should be held liable for hiring improperly documented workers is ludicrous! The first and most important job of the federal government is to protect our borders. Employers are not document experts. If there is complicity in this matter it lies with the government—not employers.

I believe we would suffer the worst depression in our history if undocumented workers suddenly were to be removed from our work force. Surely our congressmen can come together on a real immigration reform package devoid of the raging emotions of many of our citizens who are ignorant of the U.S. employment situation.

David May
D.R. Kidd Co. Inc.
Lenexa, Kan.