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The Immigration Tightrope [Business and Illegal Immigrants]
Business Week Online ^ | 2 May 2006 | Pallavi Gogoi and Nick Leiber

Posted on 05/06/2006 8:57:31 AM PDT by Racehorse

. . . immigration is becoming just as sensitive an issue in the corner office. As emotions heat up on both sides of the debate, the stance that companies take can affect their relations with customers, suppliers, and employees. The stakes are particularly high for companies with large exposure to Hispanics.

[. . .]

More common, however, were companies reluctant to take any public stance. On May 1, a large Target store in Jersey City, N.J., where many of the employees are Latino, had to make do with far fewer hands than usual. However, the manager of the store wouldn't give out any specifics about the number of employees who didn't turn up. He would not identify himself by name and referred BusinessWeek Online to a media-inquiries telephone number at headquarters in Minneapolis. Calls to that number were not returned.

[. . .]

The business risks are steep. Consider the case of Kimberly-Clark, the paper-products giant that makes everything from Kleenex to Huggies. Some Hispanics are advocating a boycott of the company's products, because James Sensenbrenner, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin who has advocated a crackdown on illegal immigration, has financial ties to the company.

[. . .]

Some companies reported that the May Day protests caused little disruption in their businesses. . . .

[. . .]

Still, the immigration issue has been brought to the fore in recent months, and businesses, large and small, are wrestling with the proper response. Art Carlson, a painting and plastering contractor based in Tivoli, N.Y., employs a crew of four, including two immigrants, a Mexican and a Slovakian. He said he gave every one the option of taking the day off without penalty. The Mexican, the highest-paid member of Carlson's crew, stayed home. The Slovakian chose to work.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Mexico; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aliens; business; illegalimmigration; illegals; immigrantlist; immigration; undocumentdworkers
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Watching a rerun of Cavuto this morning on FOX, I was shocked by the panel's support for illegal immigrant workers.  Some actually mocked the alarm many of us feel about illegal immigration.

What is a business to do?  Obey the immigration laws is the first thought coming easily to mind.  But, that's not what most of Cavuto's panel focused on.

Faced with a boycott or problems with employees, to whom does a company owe loyalty?  Stockholders?  Or, their fellow citizens?  What if the company is foreign owned?

1 posted on 05/06/2006 8:57:34 AM PDT by Racehorse
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To: Racehorse

And those companies deserve all the hell they will have to pay for hiring illegals, they are criminals who broke into the U.S.

If the wall street pimps think that foreign nationals who decided to break into this country is a good thing than how do they feel about the illegals threatening to shut down the economy?

Wait till the illegals get the amnesty that wall street is pushing for and demand high wages and benefits etc plus welfare benefits what are the employers who are breaking laws along with the illegals going to do than?


2 posted on 05/06/2006 9:03:55 AM PDT by stopem (To allow a bunch of third world country nationals to divide Americans is unconscionable!)
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To: Racehorse

Cracks me up, these companies are concerned about being boycotted by illegal aliens and their supporters but not by legal American citizens.
Look at the numbers stupidos!


3 posted on 05/06/2006 9:07:49 AM PDT by sheana
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To: Racehorse
Yeah, these "financial" shows like "bulls and bears" have these yahoos on all the time mocking the very people that (they believe) are watching their show. They are one trick ponies. Their portfolios are their lives. They care for nothing else. They're hump their latest brainchild and try to pump the audience all full of sunshine about this or that while we live with this.
4 posted on 05/06/2006 9:08:19 AM PDT by n230099 ("If the creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out.")
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To: stopem

Companies have one and only one rule of business and that is THE LOVE OF MONEY screw the law do what it take to make a buck.


5 posted on 05/06/2006 9:08:46 AM PDT by Vaduz (and just think how clean the cities would become again.)
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To: Vaduz

Right and I'm not opposed to them making money I am however opposed to hiring people who have broken into this country illegally and ignoring American consumer/workers and breaking laws to make the almighty buck.


6 posted on 05/06/2006 9:11:47 AM PDT by stopem (To allow a bunch of third world country nationals to divide Americans is unconscionable!)
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To: Racehorse
Exactly how do employers obey immigration laws when there are known forgers providing real but fake documents to illegals. I am not so naive to deny that some employers know they are employing illegals but I am also convinced that because there is an industry of forgers in every city pumping out false documents, that the problem is not employers. furthermore the problem is welfare. Why dig ditches when you can sit home drinking a bear and eating pretzels and get paid for doing it. You can thank the socialists for the lack of Americans who are willing to work at hard jobs.

It's supply and demand. Everyone in American who wants to work is! Everyone sitting at his computer is so much smarter then anyone else, maybe we should give everyone a computer to type into so that all the problems of the world can be solved.
7 posted on 05/06/2006 9:11:55 AM PDT by street_lawyer (Conservative Defender of the Faith)
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To: Racehorse
Faced with a boycott or problems with employees, to whom does a company owe loyalty?

Stockholders because of fiduciary responsibility.

8 posted on 05/06/2006 9:15:06 AM PDT by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: stopem

"If the wall street pimps think that foreign nationals who decided to break into this country is a good thing than how do they feel about the illegals threatening to shut down the economy?"

They live behing guarded gated estates. They are blind and/or indifferent to what the rest of us put up with. I am finished with Barnes and Kondrake, as they are pro illegal immigration too!. So are a number of other Fox News Flunkies!


9 posted on 05/06/2006 9:19:33 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Immigration: Acting like dupes does not earn us their respect, but their CONTEMPT.))
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To: Racehorse
Watching a rerun of Cavuto this morning on FOX, I was shocked by the panel's support for illegal immigrant workers.

Fox News has been absolutely disappointing on the illegal invader issue. The beltway boys have Kondrake as the liberal and fred barnes as the slightly less liberal on the issue.

10 posted on 05/06/2006 9:21:09 AM PDT by Mogollon
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To: Racehorse
"I was shocked by the panel's support for illegal immigrant workers. Some actually mocked the alarm"
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..............
every money show this morning had illegal apologist out in full form..they want amnesty and continued cheap labor (slave labor to me)..little tin pots living in the world of privilege while the common man sees his country given away. The fall of Rome must have been very similar.
11 posted on 05/06/2006 9:22:34 AM PDT by ConsentofGoverned (if a sucker is born every minute, what are the voters?)
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To: Racehorse

bump


12 posted on 05/06/2006 9:25:04 AM PDT by moehoward
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To: Racehorse

"Faced with a boycott or problems with employees, to whom does a company owe loyalty? Stockholders? Or, their fellow citizens? What if the company is foreign owned?"

This is the road toward globalism. If companies have only allegiance to the dollar and none toward America or American citizens then they are enemies of the American people.


13 posted on 05/06/2006 9:31:46 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: street_lawyer
It's supply and demand. Everyone in American who wants to work is! Everyone sitting at his computer is so much smarter then anyone else, maybe we should give everyone a computer to type into so that all the problems of the world can be solved.

Strange comment regarding the use of computers to express thoughts, exchange ideas, and to learn from others.  Or, did you mean something else?  Clearly, you seem to find some value to pecking at a keyboard and then clicking the "post" icon.

Forged documents.

Let's say you're right, and I most definitely believe you are. I heard, but do not know as fact, that government agencies will not tell others that they suspect documents like social security numbers are fraudulent. It is the duty of a company to comply with the law.  It ought to be the duty of government to make compliance as easy as possible.

Supply and Demand

Do not businesses employing illegal workers artificially manipulate the curve?

14 posted on 05/06/2006 9:35:35 AM PDT by Racehorse (Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.)
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To: Altura Ct.
"This is the road toward globalism. If companies have only allegiance to the dollar and none toward America or American citizens then they are enemies of the American people."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>..........
some truth there, many in the business of employing illegals only see it as a way to get extra profits..
they do not want to look into the future this criminal activity will bring..once America is neutered the OWG comes and too many elites think they will sit at the new seat of power..fools one and all, for their sons and daughters will live in tyranny
15 posted on 05/06/2006 9:36:12 AM PDT by ConsentofGoverned (if a sucker is born every minute, what are the voters?)
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To: Racehorse


We look at what this president and the government has done to U.S. citizens for the sake of their hairy necks and the almighty dollar, and we wonder how this has been allowed to happen. I will probably be paying alot more for yard work since I told my Caucasian company that no illegal aliens are to work on my yard, but so be it. All companies who hire illegals should be boycotted by U.S. citizens, and painfully fined by our so called government.
If the laws are enforced, the invaders will go home on their own account, and this country will be a healthier one all the way around. No more deals with Fox, Mr. President!


16 posted on 05/06/2006 9:37:02 AM PDT by Paperdoll (On the cutting edge)
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To: Racehorse

The employers of the illegal Aliens should be arrested and sent on a Honeymoon to Rahway State Prisoner!

Then you will see the job market dry up & the illegals will go back to el Presentente Vincente Foxe!


17 posted on 05/06/2006 9:42:06 AM PDT by petkus
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To: Racehorse
I really don't give a damn about businesses that use illegal aliens. If they go out of business we will be better off because they are cheats. This and every other society is better off without cheaters. Whatever they sell by cheating will be sold more expensively by someone else at first. Then things will even out and we will all be better off.
18 posted on 05/06/2006 10:00:33 AM PDT by jmaroneps37 (Everyday brings a new reason to distrust Hillary Clinton.)
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: ncountylee

Faced with a boycott or problems with employees, to whom does a company owe loyalty?

Stockholders because of fiduciary responsibility.

To me, without regulation, that is precisely the bind they find themselves in.

Few are as brutally honest as Exxon/Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, "''We answer to our stockholders. We are in business to make money.''

Who wants to introduce new laws, new regulations, and new bureaucracies to administer and enforce them?  So, it seems to me, to avoid those negatives, showing loyalty to the American national interest best serves their stockholders.

20 posted on 05/06/2006 10:07:27 AM PDT by Racehorse (Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.)
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