Many Mexicans have jobs before crossing

[IChing]

Apr 15, 12:20 PM EDT
Many Mexicans have jobs before crossing

By JULIE WATSON and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press Writers


SASABE, Mexico (AP) -- When Pedro Lopez Vazquez crossed illegally into the United States last week, he was not heading north to look for a job. He already had one.

His future employer even paid $1,000 for a smuggler to help Vazquez make his way from the central Mexican city of Puebla to Aspen, Colo.

"We're going to Colorado to work in carpentry because we have a friend who was going to give us a job," Vazquez said.

Vazquez, 41, was interviewed along the Arizona border after being deported twice by the U.S. Border Patrol. He said he would keep trying until he got to Aspen.


His story is not unusual. A growing number of U.S. employers and migrants are tapping into an underground employment network that matches one with the other, often before the migrants leave home.

"It continues to become clear who controls immigration: It's not governments, but rather the market," said Jorge Santibanez, director of the Tijuana-based think-tank Colegio de la Frontera Norte.>>>>>snip

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MEXICO_WAITING_JOBS?SITE=FLSTU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

edited for sloppy paste

[joefree1]

1. My working class buddies

... where I grew up in Sacramento have all lost their jobs in construction to undocumented workers. They do some custom construction work and public service jobs (when they can get them) to keep from going under.

Fortunately I went to college. My college friends and I just lose work to outsourcing.

[lovuian]

2. Whats horrible is they don't even think about American

workers cause they have rights but these workers at least have jobs... where Americans don't...

[sam sarrha]

3. where i worked the Foreman had the illegal immigrants sign their checks and

and then payed them in cash.. minus several deductions from up the food chain...

this is Republican HEAVEN..!!!!!

[lovuian]

4. Thats the underground economy and they don't have to pay

healthcare... then they send their money home to Mexico...

[deadparrot]

5. U.S. Firms Recruit Cheap Labor in Mexico

SASABE, Mexico - When Pedro Lopez Vazquez crossed illegally into the United States last week, he was not heading north to look for a job. He already had one.

His future employer even paid $1,000 for a smuggler to help Vazquez make his way from the central Mexican city of Puebla to Aspen, Colo.

"We're going to Colorado to work in carpentry because we have a friend who was going to give us a job," Vazquez said.

Vazquez, 41, was interviewed along the Arizona border after being deported twice by the U.S. Border Patrol. He said he would keep trying until he got to Aspen.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060415/ap_on_bi_ge/mexico_waiting_jobs

[0007]

6. Was he gonna work for Ken Lay?

[fshrink]

7. Breaking news 50 years ago.

[Zorra]

8. I know a coyote that has had contracts to deliver Mexican

workers from as far south as Oaxaca in southern Mexico to as far north as the Canadian border.

As far as I know, he's retired from that "business" now.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. These companies should be slapped with huge fines,

then the money should go toward making it easier for people to enter the country legally.

[Critters2]

17. No

the money should go to unions.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

10. Is the concept of "labor law" alien to US law enforcement?

Really. These companies must be breaking every labor law on the books.

But nooooo, gotta hate them brown people EXCLUSIVELY.

[saigon68]

11. THEY BREAK THE LAWS WITH IMPUNITY

No unemployment comp

No workers comp

No OSHA standards

No tax withholding

No social security payments

AND BEST OF ALL

No health insurance (LET THE INSURED GOVERNMENT WORKER AND THE TAXPAYER PICK UP THE HOSPITAL TAB FOR THEIR KIDS WHEN THEY GET SICK

[Carrcian]

12. Laws appear to be only for legal Americans

I agree with Saigon68. The statistics coming from different states concerning the number of illegal aliens is mind-boggling when its the middle class who for the most part are picking up the tab.

Can someone explain the felony clause in the immigration bill? I was under the impression, the felony clause was for immigrants who had committed a felony could be held accountable for it. On the forum, I am reading that this bill makes any illegal immigrant a felony just for crossing the border. I am for the former not the later as its our own country's lack of enforcement, greed for cheap labor, and ignorance of how widespread the problem was and is.

I can see how a construction worker (cash paying job) can get into the workforce but quite a few of these folks are in the higher levels of professionalism. How can they work without a SSN in the age of direct deposit?

[Blaq Dem]

13. I hear they have very nice homes in Mexico

I think someone is lying to us. Someone is trying to give us the impression that these Mexicans are all desperate peoples looking for any kind of job to survive. When they send money back to Mexico, they build big new homes.

[reprobate]

14. And it would be so easy to stop illegal immigration.

You simply renegotiate NAFTA so that pay and working conditions are equivalent. Voila! no more reason to cross the border.

Of course this will not happen. I've heard that five families control Mexico, while - what, maybe 200 families control America? - so in effect what we have is ( if a family has even 10 members) in effect 2050 very wealthy people controlling two nations with a population of about 400 million. That's five one thousandths of one percent controls these two nations. Now THAT my friends is the definition of the word OLIGARCHY!

This will not change for two reasons. First, the American people are too selfish to see the cost of Teeshirts go from $6.95 to ten dollars. And second, there is no political will to change. The corporations love it this way - cheap labor and no government interference.

On the other hand, a majority of Americans oppose free immigration, like 75%. So this may be just another log on the fire of the coming revolution. And I don't believe that the troops will do anything to stop it, either. Just look what happened in 1917. Tsar Nickolaus's troops refused to fire on the protesting civilians. In fact, it was when the troops joined the protesters that the Russian Revolution really began. The similarities are amazing. They, too, had been trounced in a war they had no interest in, while their families were taken advantage of by the wealthy elite. Hunger was in the streets.

The more things change, the more they are the same. My only question now is whether it will be a revolution at the ballot box or in the mean streets. But it's coming. Of that we can be certain.

[0007]

15. You got it! And if the employer needs more workers guess who gets the word

and the deed to bring more into the country.

[MissB]

16. One of the local Republican candidates for governor

stated during a debate this week that he would not seek penalties for employers. That's right. He wouldn't attempt to curb the problem by hitting the people who are a huge part of the problem.

His concentration is solely on the people who "illegally" come to this country.