The Effect on Remodelers
This issue is important for U.S. business and industry, especially new construction and remodeling. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau compiled by Pew Hispanic Center suggest that 14% of all construction workers are unauthorized migrants, with the percentage significantly higher in several subcategories, including roofing, drywall, and painting.
Howard would not concede those numbers, but agrees that immigration affects the industry. He says that the NAHB supports the plan endorsed by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), for its “very practical” guest worker proposal. “It’s the approach that acknowledges the impact that immigrant labor has on our economy.”
Howard also echoes popular opposition to the portion of the House bill that would place more responsibility on business owners to verify the legality of migrant workers in their employ. “We encourage our members to check drivers’ licenses, Social Security cards, and green cards,” he says, adding that that’s all that can practically be expected. “Some of the proposals on [Capitol] Hill would turn small-business owners into INS agents. Any law that the government can’t enforce is a bad law.” Alex Shekhtman, president of Elite Remodeling in Gaithersburg, Md., agrees, saying that it’s too much to ask him to verify the authenticity of his employee’s documents.
Howard also called proposals to deport all unauthorized migrants to their home countries or to charge them as felons “impractical.”
When contacted by REMODELING, a spokesperson for the National Association of the Remodeling industry (NARI) said that the organization did not have an official position on the issue at this time.
Labor Woes
If you’re thinking, “I don’t use illegal workers, so this doesn’t affect me,” think again. The building and remodeling industries are currently caught in a major labor shortage, and any reduction in immigration — legal or illegal — will crunch the labor situation even further. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that the unauthorized migrant population grows by roughly half a million people each year.
Shekhtman says that if legislation is passed, it’s likely that his company will feel the crunch, even though all the immigrants he employs are legal. “Maybe we’ll be impacted through our subcontractors,” he says, citing increased costs and scarcity of legal, qualified trades as possible consequences of an immigration crackdown.
Himself a legal Russian immigrant, Shekhtman says that while he doesn’t advocate being in the country illegally, the great majority of illegal immigrants he has met are “good, hard-working people who want better lives for themselves and their families.”
He is in favor of a guest worker program: “We need those people.”