he landscaping industry in Orange County has a heavy reliance on an immigrant labor force that includes many natives of Mexico. The illegal immigration issue affects the bottom lines of many landscape construction firms, including mine.
However the politicians can achieve it, comprehensive reform is the best way to address the illegal immigration issue and regain secure control of America’s borders.
California’s licensed landscape contractors, mostly small and midsize businesses, employ more than 86,500 workers and contribute an estimated $5.5 billion to the state’s economy.
The California Landscape Contractors Association represents more than 2,500 licensed contractors who design, install and maintain landscape at residential, commercial and public properties. California Landscape Contractors Association’s Orange County chapter is one of the largest, with more than 350 members.
How do Orange County’s landscape contractors feel about illegal immigration from Mexico?
First, we strongly resent any “scapegoating” of landscape company owners as the “bad guys.” The vast majority of licensed contractors do not practice the exploitation of undocumented workers.
Wages paid to undocumented workers in the landscaping industry are relatively high for semi-skilled and unskilled work. Many entry-level positions in landscape maintenance pay $2 above California’s minimum wage. With experience and promotion to supervisory positions, landscape workers typically command $15 to $20 per hour, plus benefits.
Clearly, there is nothing “cheap” about the Mexican “cheap labor” myth.
Any employer of immigrants, Mexican or other Latinos, will tell you that these people are some of their best, hardest-working employees. In many cases, the business could not survive without them.
However, we realize that comprehensive immigration reform also may require the need for increased penalties against employers who would knowingly hire undocumented workers. Corruption and cheap labor hurts all Californians.
Many of the state’s problems, including dysfunctional schools and overburdened healthcare systems, are compounded by illegal immigrants.
But there should be a safe harbor for good-faith mistakes, particularly if the employer must rely on government-provided data, such as a computer verification database. Removing immigrant workers would mean invading workplaces across America and disrupting business on an unprecedented scale.
Secondly, we wholeheartedly support comprehensive immigration reform that will meet the requirements of national security and demands of a growing U.S. economy, while allowing honest workers who respect the law the opportunity to provide for their families.
We support efforts to establish a realistic and expanded temporary worker program that will match willing foreign workers with willing American employers to fill jobs that Americans will not do. A temporary worker program recognizes the reality that immigrants will make sacrifices to come to America to work and build a better life.
Immigrant workers keep large sectors of our economy functioning. They work hard and bring a self-starting, independent and entrepreneurial spirit to U.S. commerce.
President Bush stated that “every human being has dignity and value, no matter what their citizenship papers say.” We support efforts to help illegals become legal.
Our national security interest would be best served by providing incentives for undocumented workers to self-identify as the first step on the road to legal status. We agree that amnesty could undermine the rule of law, reward illegal behavior, be unfair to those who follow the law and invite further illegal immigration.
However, with a rational middle ground of immigrant assimilation and earned citizenship, once foreign workers were able to exercise their legal rights, under our labor laws without fear of retaliation, they would be in a better position to bargain for improved wages and benefits.
Along with millions of Americans, we, too, worry about the security of our national borders. The border should be open to trade and lawful immigration, and shut to illegal immigrants, as well as criminals, drug dealers and terrorists.
Yes, we know the current immigration system is an atrocious mess. Yes, we know that action is needed, not more empty promises when there’s chaos at our borders. Yes, we know that a better immigration plan is one that would effectively engage the cooperation of states in Latin America.
Therefore, we believe that only comprehensive solutions will work when dealing with immigration reform and national security, as well as the needs of the national economy and American businesses, including landscape contractors.
Wade is president of Laguna Beach-based Wade Landscape and chairman of the California Landscape Contractors Association’s Legislative Committee.
