Industry Leaders: Immigration Reform Begins in Texas
Although immigration reform is largely deemed a federal issue, construction moguls in Texas are confident that amending employment laws here can be a catalyst for nationwide change.
Stan Marek, the president and CEO of the Marek Family of Companies, an interior contracting company that has offices across the state, recently testified before the Texas Workforce Commission in advance of the agency’s final preparations for its legislative agenda on what he said is a rampant problem within the construction industry.
Marek said employers purposely misclassify employees as subcontractors, or “1099” workers — so named because of the federal employment form they ...
Comments (10)
Daniel Kowalski
Excellent piece. But it is "Immigration and Customs Enforcement," not "Immigrations..." Have no idea why so many people pluralize that name.
gypsy314 ne
This would be a good start and make a world of difference to many low skill Americans. Plus all the victims from A to Z crimes. Think about it our local law enforcers have died from illegal aliens. Just remember all they have to do is do the crime and turn there self in and get free ride home because they know they are not in our systems and will never be caught. Food for thought do you think any other country would allow illegal aliens in there country the answer is hell no they would not because think of the chaos that one or more could cause being a ghost no trace of being there. Americans we have better get awakening and soon because if the terrorist want chaos just think about it start fires and so on and so would be a mess America can not deal with and then everything would be in play. So we have better know who the hell is in our country. I say we need to know who the hell is in our state of Texas and dame well better insist on our leaders doing something about it. If the democrats and Obama want the illegal aliens then send them to the blue states NOW.
Richard Reibstein
Texas is no different than many states, which are cracking down not misclasification of employees as independent contractors (ICs). This article focuses on misclassification as it applies to underground hiring of employees who are not paid on a 1099 basis but rather under the table. While some regulators and commentators refer to that as misclassification, it is really a wholly different matter than 1099 misclassification, where companies report wages but do not withhold taxes, pay their contributions for Social Security and Medicare, cover these workers for Unemployment and Workers Compensation, or pay any required overtime. For companies that are caught up in 1099 misclassication, they can enhance their IC compliance considerably by restructuring, redocumenting, and reimplementing their IC relationships in a manner that can minimize IC misclassification liability. Some savvy companies are doing that now, using a form of IC Diagnostics (TM), such as that described in the White Paper at http://www.pepperlaw.com/publications_article.aspx?ArticleKey=2365, to avoid being swept up in the crackdown after realizing that their IC relationships, as currently structured, documented, and implemented, may regrettably expose them to substantial misclassificaiton liability. Indeed, under Texas law, an employer has the burden of showing that an IC is free from direction and control "under the contract and in fact." Therefore, upgrading to a state-of-the-art IC agreement is more important than ever for those companies in Texas and other states with similar laws and regulatory agencies seeking to detect companies who are using 1099ers but doing so in a manner not fully consistent with state laws. Richard Reibstein (ReibsteinR@PepperLaw.com)
Lance Johnson
Given the topic of immigrants in recent elections, an interesting new book that helps explain the role, struggles, and contributions of immigrants and minorities is "What Foreigners Need To Know About America From A To Z: How to understand crazy American culture, people, government, business, language and more.” It paints a revealing picture of America for those who will benefit from a better understanding. Endorsed by ambassadors, educators, and editors, it also informs Americans who want to learn more about the U.S. and how we compare to other countries around the world on many issues.
As the book points out, immigrants and minorities are a major force in America, as the GOP recently discovered. Immigrants and the children they bear account for 60 percent of our nation’s population growth and own 11 percent of US businesses and are 60 percent more likely to start a new business than native-born Americans. They represent 17 percent of all new business owners (in some states more than 30 percent). Foreign-born business owners generate nearly one-quarter of all business income in California and nearly one-fifth in the states of New York, Florida, and New Jersey.
Legal immigrants number 850,000 each year; undocumented (illegal) immigrants are estimated to be half that number. They come to improve their lives and create a foundation of success for their children to build upon, as did the author’s grandparents when they landed at Ellis Island in 1899 after losing 2 children to disease on a cramped cattle car-like sailing from Europe. Many bring skills and a willingness to work hard to make their dreams a reality, something our founders did four hundred years ago. In describing America, chapter after chapter identifies “foreigners” who became successful in the US and contributed to our society. However, most struggle in their efforts and need guidance, be they in Austin TX or Anytown, USA. Perhaps intelligent immigration reform, concerned Americans, and this book along with others can extend a helping hand. www.AmericaAtoZ.com
Rudy Gonzales
Remarkable - Companies striving to make a profit in their bottom line have to do 180's like Romney to keep from getting into federal trouble over hiring. Undocumented workers have been coming to and leaving for over forty years and many have legal families with legal residences. The Congress has been grossly incompetent by not passing "The Dream Act" and enacting immigration reform to address family issues affecting families with situations as addressed above. The Congress should and must get to work to address this issue.
robert moore
The employers and accountants should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Milions of honest Americans have been denied their right to earn a living by the thieves on both sides. That is the truth of the matter.
Mary Steele
If Obama and the Democrats wanted the Dream Act or overall amnesty passed they had 2 full years to do it from day 1 of Obama taking office because the Democrats already had voting majority in the House and Senate which left them 2 full years to pass it, and the same with cutting the tax breaks for the rich, oil subsidies and war funding! But they "chose" not to!!
You have millions of people all over the world that want to come here "to improve their lives", but the fact is we do not have enough jobs for the legal immigrants and citizens here, and it is wrong to let companies get away with hiring them and it is wrong to let them stay here and take jobs from legal immigrants and citizens, as well as jump ahead of those legally waiting their turn outside of the country like it is suppose to be!
We can only absorb so many people and right now we have too many for the jobs and resources! As much as we want to help others, we can only do so much before it takes away from those here legally, 14-22 million unemployed legal immigrants and citizens! And that is costing over $50 Billion a year unnecessarily!
It's not fair to those here legally to have to compete against those here illegally and the same goes for companies that play by the rules! Once we get the legal immigrants and citizens here back to work and thriving, then we can bring in more people! For the ones too lazy to take them or think they are too good for them, cut off Extended Unemployment and Welfare. We should not pay anybody to sit home and do nothing as long as their are jobs for them to do!
Meme Me
The same big business “Mega” construction and all of their minions are promoting open borders and pushing for an unlimited supply of low wage workers that they can exploit for the slaves they need to reap billions in profit. The dirty truth is that these workers don't just wonder into the country on their own. They are enticed and recruted through a pipeline of human trafficers who bring them into the country by the thousands to do these mega construction jobs. Human trafficing is what they call it. We the public subsidies their workers in every way possible so they can profit handsomely. While we the public bears the costs of lost jobs, increased numbers to educate, medical care, increased crime, increased housing costs due to supply and demand. So what’s new? Obama is still the President, our borders are still wide open and the USA is still being invaded by people from foreign countries….
David Spratt
This mis-classification and in many cases no classification is the main reason the claim is made Illegal aliens pay no taxes. When you have multiple people all sharing a common address ,, I have seen 10- 15 at a time,,,, and the 1099 goes to locations that in many cases these people no longer reside there, possibly never did , and the 1099's go into the trash.
Sending out the 1099 does not mean the taxes will be paid. If quarterly payments have not been made most employers still do not care and most times only mismatches of SSN are the only notifications employers receive. In that case you simply ask for a new number and carry on.
In many cases where less than say 10 people are being employed the employer may not even claim he has employees and just pays the tax himself on the earnings. This is cheaper than paying Workman's comp, unemployment, payroll taxes and any other associated insurance costs, and in addition is much easier from a paperwork standpoint. Just take in the money and after deductions pay the tax.Some of this money can be worked into deductions for business expenses and would not throw up a red flag if income and deductions were not totally out of line relative to one another.
Construction in general works this way ,, this is the rule rather than the exception. Only larger companies comply and in many cases as with home builders they simply sub out the work to other contractors who employ the above methods. The overall savings in labor costs when you are paying an illegal worker $5 an hr less than you would have to pay a legal worker more than makes up for the additional taxes you would pay just claiming you made the money with no help.
This is the area that has hurt American workers the most. having been in general construction for more than 25 years and finally giving up. I have seen this firsthand. You cannot cover your costs and make a profit today as a general rule without using Illegal labor in a majority of cases.
The last commercial company I worked for terminated me after I refused to hire illegal aliens and I weeded out those they had working. I had no problem hiring documented green card holders and hired many while there. Everyone was paid fairly and documented aliens were never paid less than regular American Citizens. Months later talking to some of the guys that I had hired guess what?,,,,, I had been replaced by an illegal alien who they had applied for a temporary work permit for,,, and they got it. Renewable indefinitely !!!
Looking into this further they were paying him half of what they had paid me. I was making well above median income so this was a substantial amount of money. There really is nothing exceptional about my experience and I am just one of thousands of people in the same boat.
So every time I hear illegal aliens do not have a negative impact on the economy or Americans in general ,, enriching our society, making valuable contributions to the country and just generally being an all around benefit to the United States ,,, It really ticks me off. Not just for myself as I have moved on,,,,left Construction and taken my skills elsewhere,,,, but for all the people I know that still have to deal with this and seem to be fighting a losing battle because of those who do not have to compete with illegals for work,,,,, and see no problem. They get their yards mowed for a few $ less per wk,, Get that new patio for a couple of hundred less or get their house painted for less than half price,, never mind they may have to have it done again sooner than they would have if they had just hired someone who actually knew what they were doing and knew they could not do an adequate job for that price.
There are a lot of people that buy into the rhetoric that there is no real problem and they are only doing jobs Americans will not do and not hurting a thing.
This is a lie ,,, and there are millions of Americans struggling to house and feed their families everyday that have to live this lie. It would be nice if the advocates for illegal aliens and the open borders coalitions would have half the compassion for their fellow Citizens as they have for the illegals themselves.
Mary Steele
It is not the government's responsibility to keep family's together. It is their responsibility to do what is best for the country! The illegals can take their children with them and apply like everybody else! Rewarding them for breaking our laws is ludicrous! Send them home with or without their children, it is the illegals choice to take them or leave them here! Don't blame the government for their decision to come here ilegally, do blame them for not standing up for those who came legally and the government's failure to protect their right to work and thrive, which has been stolen by illegals. And once the children that were brought here illegally turned 18, they were responsible for their illegal status and should have went back with their parents and applied like the people we want to come here-law-abiding immigrants!
We don't have enough jobs for legal immigrants and citizens, to think we can let anybody stay that wants to is ludicrous! Money for extended unemployment and Welfare is shrinking, what will our unemployed do when that money is gone? They are already struggling and should not be forced to suffer more because our government is failing to protect their right as a legal immigrant or citizen to work and thrive, which has been taken by illegals!