by KYW’s Brad Segall
From the mushroom farms of Chester County, Pa. to the commercial office buildings of Montgomery County, undocumented workers make up a large portion of the unskilled labor force in the Pennsylvania suburbs.
But one recent incident may have even more of those workers looking over their shoulders.
Immigration experts agree that it’s still fairly easy for employers to hire illegal immigrants. All they have to do is check the job applicant’s identification card. It may be counterfeit, but if it looks good on the face, they’re hired.
Those same immigration experts say that illegals can work for years and support their families if they manage to "fly under the radar" and don’t commit crimes.
But there are hazards. Fifty office cleaners were picked up recently in a raid in King of Prussia. Jeff Hornstein is with the labor union that represents those workers:
"The bigger issue that I think that’s going to happen in the community is, folks are terrified to go to work if they have any questionable issue about their status. I don’t work for Immigration so I have no idea what percentage of the work force here has status issues, but I’d imagine if you called some of the employers you would find that some of their workers are not showing up.”
But will that affect hiring in the future? Valarie Long, vice president of Local 32BJ, doesn’t think so:
"The service economy is one that preys on folks who may have undocumented status. The wages are low in most cases, and folks will get whatever jobs that they can. So, unfortunately, there are five million service worker jobs that are going to be produced in this country, so it doesn’t go away until you fix the immigration system overall.”
Eighteen of those workers picked up in the raid now face deportation.
(File photo)
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