Over WORKED

Undocumented day laborers are some of the most victimized individuals within the United States, along with domestic workers, piecework and sweat shop workers.  So many are routinely cheated and fear taking any recourse.

Recent studies carried out by the National Day Labor Organizing Network in Los Angeles claimed that in 25 states found out that little over half of all undocumented workers had been underpaid and many were not paid at all. Along with domestic workers many day laborer are little more than slaves. Because they are in such a vulnerable situation they are effortlessly ripped off with promises to pay in the future, checks that bounce, bed and meals now and the rest at the end of the job followed with threats to call immigration authorities if the workers ask for the rest of their pay, as outlined by Pamela Constable Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 8, 2008.

The informal economy operates with no contracts, little if any records kept, payment in cash and a mix and match agreement benefiting the employer and cheating the worker. Most are paid either piecework or not at all and below the minimum wage with without benefits, overtime, or workmen’s compensation.

Two myths that stir up anti-immigrant feeling is crime and welfare abuse.

There appears to little or no evidence that this current group of immigrants is any more criminal in their action than ethnic gangs of the past going back to the 1840’s.  As a matter of fact over all immigrants tend to be more family oriented and thus less likely to commit crimes than the general population. This appears to be the cause going back to 1900 according to research by the Carnegie “Endowment for International Peace and the Urban Institute and Cross-city evidence on the relationship between immigration and crime " and cited in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Vol. 17, No. 3, 1998, pp. 457-93.

Immigrants as a whole have a lower than average utilization of public services and many paying taxes and Social Security, immigrants contribute far more to the Economy and government coffers than they use in social services. When taxes are deducted from what pay undocumented immigrants do get they are unable to claim a tax refund, Social Security benefits or other welfare benefits.  As a matter of fact when an undocumented is granted amnesty they are not eligible for benefits for five years. “This includes benefits such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), SSI, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).”  Source for the above, please note (ACLU Myths and Facts).