Tom Tancredo Hired Illegal Laborers to Renovate His McMansion

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Tell us what you know about construction bidding, PH.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Cookie cutter mansions, mass-manufactured with poor quality materials. At least that's the origin of the term.

I don't know about New Jersey, but cheap and cookie cutter doesn't cut it in McMansion territory around here.

Lisa, Mc- is often used in a derogatory manner to imply cheap and overdone.

[Peikko 1,575]

Ok, go on, I'll play. What's your excuse as to how he could be in total ignorance of the type of contractor he was using if the price was low? Shoddy work?

[Caladan 19]

And a liberal is a conservative whose daughter needs an abortion. We can play this game all day!

Tancredo very likely didn't know. But that's a little disturbing for a guy who has made arguing against legal and illegal immigration his bread basket. Does he not know that construction is a big area for illegal work? If he doesn't know that, then what business has this guy making policy on immigration if he's ignorant of such basic demographic facts?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

You ASSume cheap and shoddy. No one else has raised that as a premise but you. You're the one who brought it up, now I ask you to back it up by explaining what you know about construction bidding in the Denver metro area. What did Tom have done, and what should he have paid for it?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

And a liberal is a conservative whose daughter needs an abortion. We can play this game all day!

Tancredo very likely didn't know. But that's a little disturbing for a guy who has made arguing against legal and illegal immigration his bread basket. Does he not know that construction is a big area for illegal work? If he doesn't know that, then what business has this guy making policy on immigration if he's ignorant of such basic demographic facts?

I'm a conservative, and one of my daughters had an abortion with my knowledge. You got something else to play with besides conjecture?

[Peikko 1,575]

Ok, tell me, was the price he paid for the work a reasonable amount to pay a contractor who uses only legal labour?

[Dan J 277]

I think there's something missing from the story....did Tom hire the people directly, or was he dealing with a contractor who hired the illegals without Tom's knowledge?

Even if you hire a contractor, you can make sure all their employees sub contractors are legally employed. But most people don't bother with that. In other words, he is simply turning a blind eye to what he is campaigning against.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Ok, tell me, was the price he paid for the work a reasonable amount to pay a contractor who uses only legal labour?

You didn't ask me before making the charge. Now, back it up.

[Caladan 19]

And a liberal is a conservative whose daughter needs an abortion. We can play this game all day!

Tancredo very likely didn't know. But that's a little disturbing for a guy who has made arguing against legal and illegal immigration his bread basket. Does he not know that construction is a big area for illegal work? If he doesn't know that, then what business has this guy making policy on immigration if he's ignorant of such basic demographic facts?

I'm a conservative, and one of my daughters had an abortion with my knowledge. You got something else to play with besides conjecture?

That's the traditional rejoinder. "A conservative is a liberal who got mugged, and a liberal is a conservative whose daughter needs an abortion.' It's making fun of both sides for voting self-interestedly while claiming some kind of moral high ground.

For someone who goes on at length about how unemotional and coldly rational your immigration position is, you seem far more emotional, and disproportionally so, than those you accuse of being bleeding heart liberals.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

What anyone "seems" to be when posting on a public board is only a matter of subjective perception, otherwise meaning nothing to anyone else but the person taking it the way they take it.

[Caladan 19]

What anyone "seems" to be when posting on a public board is only a matter of subjective perception, otherwise meaning nothing to anyone else but the person taking it the way they take it.

Not really. If I call Steven a dumb #######, it's not just subjective if he perceives that as an insult. Both sides on this issue are motivated by emotion, and not always rationally so (unless you also get into a tizzy over unlawful actions like speeding tickets.)

[Sofiyya 1,687]

70 Legal Construction Workers Lose Jobs To Cheap Illegal Aliens In Alabama

By Digger

The constant rattling on of "guest worker" amnesty programs is based a lot because those who support it honestly believe that illegal aliens take jobs that Americans don't want. Anyone with a brain knows that is a crock of ######. There are plenty of Americans who were doing the jobs prior to the massive influx of illegal aliens over the past twenty years and they're willing to do it today. About the only thing stopping them is that they aren't willing to work for less than minimum wage and that unlike illegal aliens have to have taxes withheld from their paychecks with a contribution from their employer in the form of payroll taxes as well.

This is born out in this little piece in the Washington Times that shows what has happened to 70 legal workers and American citizens hired from one Alabama employment agency in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area. I bold the previous because there are surely hundreds and thousands of the exact same stories going on throughout the country.

An Alabama employment agency that sent 70 laborers and construction workers to job sites in that state in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina says the men were sent home after just two weeks on the job by employers who told them "the Mexicans had arrived" and were willing to work for less. Linda Swope, who operates Complete Employment Services Inc. in Mobile, Ala., told The Washington Times last week that the workers -- whom she described as U.S. citizens, residents of Alabama and predominantly black -- had been "urgently requested" by contractors hired to rebuild and clear devastated areas of the state, but were told to leave three job sites when the foreign workers showed up.

"After Katrina, our company had 70 workers on the job the first day, but the companies decided they didn't need them anymore because the Mexicans had arrived," Mrs. Swope said. "I assure you it is not true that Americans don't want to work.

"We had been told that 270 jobs might be available, and we could have filled every one of them with men from this area, most of whom lost their jobs because of the hurricane," she said. "When we told the guys they would not be needed, they actually cried ... and we cried with them. This is a shame."

Mrs. Swope said employment agencies throughout Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi faced similar problems, when thousands of men from Mexico and several Central and South American countries -- many in crowded buses and trucks -- came into the three states after Katrina, looking for employment and willing to work for less money.

First, let me say to President Bush that you're full of horseshit every single time you open your trap on your plans for immigration reform. It is quite obvious that he has never been a laborer or been on the short end of the income scale because when you're at rock bottom you'll pretty much take any honest job. Some even turn to crime which is inherently risky in order to survive. To say they wouldn't take a legit job is a slap in the face to all laborers.

Second, the article notes that the workers were predominantly black. So the next time you hear of some civil rights group supporting illegal immigration you might want to point out that these same illegal aliens that they support are taking jobs away from their constituents.

Every time I hear someone quote that false mantra I think of the guys in New York City who go down and clean out the sewers. If it were true that Americans don't want certain jobs then that would definitely be one of the first ones that no one wanted. Yet that job has been filled in the past -- and is currently filled -- by legal workers and citizens of this nation. To tell them they should just give their job up to an illegal alien because the work "is beneath them" and that they should starve instead is ridiculous.

http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/001653.html

What anyone "seems" to be when posting on a public board is only a matter of subjective perception, otherwise meaning nothing to anyone else but the person taking it the way they take it.

Not really. If I call Steven a dumb #######, it's not just subjective if he perceives that as an insult. Both sides on this issue are motivated by emotion, and not always rationally so (unless you also get into a tizzy over unlawful actions like speeding tickets.)

I don't perceive your perceptions to have an effect on me.

Edited December 1, 2007 by Green-eyed girl

[Caladan 19]

Much of the work filled by illegals is exempt from minimum wage legislation anyway (agricultural, child care.) Construction has been hurt somewhat (though I still see ads around here asking for proof of legal papers), but isn't that more of a reason for Tancredo to ensure his contractors were legal?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Every once in a while, the term "brown skinned" comes up when discussing illegals, as it has in the last line of the article, referring to "brown-skinned evildoers". Perhaps all this support of brown-skinned people is because the group whose chances are lessened for living the American dream are primarily lower-class blacks, as many studies of how employment of illegals have shown to have a negative impact on American minorities, black males especially. Perhaps a preference for brown as opposed to black has a role in these debates where employment of illegals is defended as if you believe Bush when he says they are only taking jobs that Americans won't do.

There is a saying I used to hear when I was a child: If you're black get back, if you're brown, stick around. Just a thought. I do wonder about the pathology of those who prefer law breakers to those who try to stop law breaking.

Edited December 1, 2007 by Green-eyed girl