Immigration in the Ozarks, Part II: Employers find quality workers in immigrant pool

The home-building industry is a big draw for immigrant workers, most of whom are Hispanic and many of whom are illegal. Services, agriculture and food-processing industries are also hiring Hispanic immigrants.

Employers say that not enough Americans are willing or able to toil away in blue-collar endeavors nowadays.

Matt Morrow, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Greater Springfield, said there is a labor shortage in the construction industry.

Rita Needham, executive director of Southwest Area Manufacturers Association, said her members frequently mention difficulties finding qualified workers. U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics show that manufacturing employment nationwide is down 17.5 percent since 2000.

Hispanic workers are viewed as a solution, partly because of their hard-nosed work ethics.

“We are desperately needing people to work in southwest Missouri,” added Patti Penny, president and founder of Penmac Personnel Services, who is teaming up with United Migrant Workers to attract workers to Springfield.

America’s withering work ethic has left Greg and Tracie Cox in a predicament. They’ve owned commercial cleaning business Xtreme Kleen for two years at 2979 E. Chestnut Expressway. Tracie Cox said they have a horrible time keeping workers; some don’t even show up for their first day of work.

The Coxes don’t currently employ Hispanics, but they hope to stabilize their staff of 30 by hiring legal immigrants.

“Greg and I have wanted to hire some of these people because we know they work hard,” Tracie Cox said.

Crackdown

The allure of good-paying jobs is why there are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the country – 4,000 in just the Springfield area, according to Grupo LatinoAmericano, a nonprofit agency that assists immigrant Hispanics.

While many qualified, legal immigrants are making good wages in southwest Missouri, federal enforcement is on the lookout for illegal workers.

Since October, Immigration & Customs Enforcement has arrested 547 illegal immigrants in southwest Missouri. Two busts in February accounted for 73 of those deportations, according to ICE spokesman Tim Counts.

Fifty-six aliens were arrested for deportation in Carthage at a Schreiber Foods construction site. Subcontractors were to blame, with Wisconsin-based Reich Installation Services employing 28 of the undocumented workers.

Representatives of Schreiber Foods, also based in Wisconsin, and Reich Installation declined to comment.

Another 17 illegal aliens were arrested at Martin Zuniga Masonry.

Missouri Secretary of State records show Martin Zuniga as the registered agent for the company, 204 Rice St. in Nixa, and MM&T Stone Plastering Exteriors Co., 600 S. Scenic Ave.

Both were administratively dissolved through the Secretary of State’s office in December 2004. Zuniga didn’t return a phone call.

More arrests are expected.

“There are other ongoing investigations involving employment issues, but obviously, I can’t talk about those right now,” Counts said.

Counts said ICE targets illegal immigrants who have committed other crimes. That gives enforcement efforts against businesses more teeth. In the past, he said, business scoffed at small fines, sometimes less than $1,000.

Sixty-five percent of the illegal immigrants arrested locally since October have committed other crimes.

Politics of the day

The NAHB fax warns of production delays that would arise in the homebuilding industry with an even greater labor shortage if Mexican border control were tightened. It supports a guest worker program and a system to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the United States.

President Bush is pushing immigration reform. His plan includes National Guard deployments to the Mexican border and a temporary worker program.

The issue has spawned legislation in both sides of Congress. U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said America needs temporary foreign workers.

“I think it’s time to look at that program in a way where temporary workers truly can come in and meet a temporary need, and then they go home,” Blunt said. “That’s better for all countries involved if those workers who have found the better job take some of that money back (to their native country).”

Screening process

The food processing industry is traditionally a Mecca for Mexican workers, who find it attractive because it offers handsome wages without the demand for language skills or prior job experience, according to Gary Mickelson, spokesman for Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson Foods.

Opportunities arise for Hispanics because Americans increasingly shy away from such jobs, said Grupo LatinoAmericano President Yolanda Lorge.

“(American children are) graduating from college and they move (away),” she said. “They’re not going to be plucking chickens in Monett or Carthage.”

Both Mickelson and Mike Briggs, president of Springfield poultry processor Willow Brook Foods, say their companies have zero tolerance policies against hiring illegal immigrants.

They both also use a national database to verify Social Security numbers of applicants. Many illegal immigrants use forged Social Security cards to dupe employers.

“If we see something that looks fraudulent, then we report it,” Briggs said. “But … I don’t know any employer who could spend the resources to be able to verify whether a document has been gotten illegally.

“What we try to do is to follow the rules to the best of our ability.”

Briggs said only about 8 percent of Willow Brook’s work force is Hispanic, while Mickelson said 33 percent of Tyson’s companywide work force of 114,000 is Hispanic.

Tyson has eight Missouri locations: Aurora, Concordia, Dexter, Monett, Montgomery City, Noel, Pineville and Sedalia.

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