" Company Employment Dawson Lawn Service Inc. uses the H2B program to hire most employees. All employees have Legal work visas."
From their website.
Posted on 04/13/2008 3:12:27 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
Domingo Braulio and his sons have one of the longest commutes to Chattanooga for work: 1,448 miles one way.
Mr. Braulio, 49, says goodbye to his family in Concepción Chiquirichapa, Guatemala, every year to spend about 10 months working here on a temporary visa for a landscaping company.
“I tell them we come here to work and save money, not to rest,” he said as he was getting lawnmowers ready to start his first day of work, less than 12 hours after arriving at the Atlanta airport.
He and 16 Central Americans hired by Dawson Lawn Service Inc. are in the United States under a guest worker program, known as H-2B, that allows them to work for up to one year before returning to their native countries.
Congress limits the number of visas issued under the program to 66,000 per fiscal year. But demand for workers is higher than the number of visas available, said Walter Dawson, who credits the program for helping his business grow.
After almost 20 years in the landscaping business, Mr. Dawson said he couldn’t find local reliable workers.
“You can have a revolving door and you can hire a heart beat, but those kind of guys are here for their next check and then are gone till it’s gone and then they are looking for a job again,” the Brainerd-area businessman said. “You can’t build a company based on that kind of person.”
Guest worker programs have been in existence since 1942. The H-2A and H-2B programs allow U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for agricultural and nonagricultural seasonal jobs after proving they cannot find local workers.
While employers have lobbied Congress to expand the programs, lawmakers haven’t done so because immigration has become a volatile issue, said Charles Kuck, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and an adjunct professor at the University of Georgia School of Law.
“Immigration is such a radioactive issue nobody wants to touch it,” he said.
The number of visas available should be dictated by the market, not by Congress, he said.
Some organizations that want to reduce immigration say some employers and job contractors abuse the program, which they say puts American workers at a disadvantage.
“Americans should get first crack at every single job in America,” Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations for Numbers USA, a nonprofit immigration reduction organization, said. “If and only if the job really can’t be filled and the employers have tried recruiting in minority and poor areas, only then should they be able to import foreign workers to do the job.”
DOING IT FOR THE FAMILY
Levi Saquich, 18, and his brother, 23-year-old Esduardo, are among the youngest of the group from Guatelmala working for Mr. Dawson. They say their jobs in the United States help them support their families in Guatemala.
Mr. Saquich wants to send money to his two younger brothers.
“It makes me feel very proud and happy to know that I’m going to be able to send money home so my little brothers can go to school,” said Mr. Sakich, who finished the equivalent of eighth grade in Guatemala, a higher grade than most of his fellow workers completed.
“Our dad died when we were very young, so we had to start working in the fields,” he said. “When Esduardo and my brother Byron started to come to the United States, they would also send us money to buy food and go to school.”
In Guatemala only elementary school is free, so many children cannot continue their education, he said. Many students go to school for only a few years until they learn Spanish. The Guatemalan workers’ first language is Mam and Quiche, spoken by the Mayan people indigenous to the country.
Working in the United States under the visa program also has become a family venture for the Braulios. Two of Domingo Braulio’s six children, Noe, 27, and Lisandro, 19, and two brothers, Albino, 39, and Santiago, 28, have joined him in the United States the past few years.
The guest workers have to pay their own living expenses, including food, transportation and housing, but they still earn far more than they would in Guatemala.
“Over there you make $4 or $5 a day,” Noe Braulio said. “Here we get to save about $1,000 every month.”
Minimum wage in Tennessee is $6.93 an hour, but Mr. Dawson said he pays workers according to their experience.
“I usually raise their wage within a few months of their arrival, he said.
Most of them have bought property and vehicles, and sent money to their families back home with the money they earn and save.
Domingo Braulio said he purchased a piece of land in Guatemala for when he grows old and can no longer work in the United States.
“At least it’s something I can call mine and that belongs to my family,” he said.
Albino Braulio bought a home in Highland Park that he pays for every month, even when he returns to Guatemala.
“I’ve been able to better myself here in the United States and in Guatemala,” he said. “I’m able to put my children through school and make sure they have a decent meal at home.”
Domingo Braulio has traveled to the United States for work since 2001. Although his departure saddens his wife each year, he said he has a clear choice: work in the United States or struggle to support his family back home.
In Guatemala, he grows potatoes, plums, apples and corn, but he said that’s unreliable work.
“Crops sell for very little money and can be easily ruined by weather conditions,” he said in Spanish.
THE PROGRAM
Mr. Dawson has used the temporary guest worker program since 2001. Domingo Brualio was the first employee he hired through the program.
He learned about the visa program at a landscaping conference. According to the Tennessee and Georgia departments of labor, the industries that request the H-2B visas are primarily landscaping, tree planting, construction and, more recently, hotel resorts.
Applying for temporary workers is a long process, Mr. Dawson said, but this year he was lucky — he was able to bring 17 workers from Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. This year’s cap was reached within the first few days that the visas became available.
Opponents argue that the current system doesn’t have safeguards to prevent guest workers from remaining here.
“We should have a system to ensure they leave when they are supposed to, which we don’t have right now,” Ms. Jenks said.
Albino Braulio said he would never consider staying here illegally.
“Right now I have everything in order, nothing worries me because I’m doing everything right, but when you are here illegally you are always worried that they are going to deport you,” he said. “I couldn’t live like that.”
Mr. Dawson said all of his workers except for three Americans, including his son, are here under the visa program.
“They are people I trust and that I know will respect my clients,” he said. “They have become friends and family.”
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Earning a living in a foreign country presents work and cultural challenges to the Saquiches and Braulios.
Levi Saquich said he spent his first few weeks in the United States learning how to use gas-powered tools and to live in an American neighborhood.
“Over there we never use this type of machine,” he said about the weed cutters and lawn mowers. “In Guatemala we use hoes and rakes, nonelectrical tools.”
Domingo Braulio said in Guatemala people don’t cut and maintain the grass — they get rid of it.
“The trees are for growing fruit, not to have them next to the house for shade,” he said. “Here you have Wal-Mart open every day, all the time, and you don’t have to worry about water, or electricity, but over there it’s different.”
Noe Braulio said most people in their village didn’t have telephones in their home until about eight years ago.
“We would record something in cassettes, send it to our relatives here in the United States, and then they would receive it, record something and send it back,” he said.
“It was very sad because you would miss your family, but you couldn’t talk to them,” he said. “Now we call back home every week so they don’t worry about us.”
This year Esduardo Saquich brought his wife, Sheny, and his brother, Levi, with him to make the transition easier.
“It was very hard last year when I stayed behind,” Mrs. Saquich said. “We had just gotten married.”
His brother in Guatemala, Milton Saquich, said in a telephone interview that the money sent home helps.
“With that money we buy food, we go to the doctor if someone gets sick ... there are no work opportunities here (in Guatemala),” he said.
“We know they are going to come back ... as the months pass by, we eagerly wait for their return and celebrate when the day finally comes,” he said.
LIVING IN TWO WORLDS
The workers said Guatemala is their home, but they don’t deny it’s easy to get used to the luxuries they said life in the United States brings them.
“After so many years of coming, you get used to this way of life,” Domingo Braulio said. Here he rents a house in Highland Park, where most of the other workers live.
Most are used to driving, having their own homes and buying all of their clothes and food in American stores.
Over the years many of them have built relationships and separate lives in Chattanooga.
Albino Braulio helped found the Hispanic Church of God, a Pentecostal church on Dodds Avenue, last year. When he arrived earlier this month, church members were waiting for him.
Last week he was named the church elder, a privilege and an honor, he told the group of about 60 members.
“I live by God’s words and even though here I work in the landscaping industry, when I go back to Guatemala I dedicate my time to God and spreading his teachings,” Albino said. “And I’m happy doing them both.”
PING
If they are playing by the rules, then it’s fine.
" Company Employment Dawson Lawn Service Inc. uses the H2B program to hire most employees. All employees have Legal work visas."
From their website.
"Guest" workers should be deported with only the clothes on their backs.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
They can’t be deported, as long as they obey the law and have an H2-B visa.
Are they getting US government supported housing, food stamps, medical, etc. with their work visas?
I totally agree. It's when they are here illegally that I have a problem with and drain the social services that should go to legal citizens who are having a hard time.
What we need is a whole lot of comprehensive immigration reform with ZERO amnesty and a whole lot of border and interior enforcement.
Then we can look at guest worker programs.
I believe this; and partially it is due to Roe v. Wade.
However the answer is not to import people, but to cut the benefits to the non-working class so that they will have the desire to better themselves by working hard at a job.
Ping!
Says the man has a temporary visa. That is fine. However, Americans are not pissed at the legals that are here but the Illegals. I guess the MSM, and may politicians, don’t care about that.
when are these guys going to start paying my bills. I’ve been paying theirs for the longest time.
Country’s full, BYE!
Interesting article, thanks for posting it.
Rosemary Jenks is absolutely correct.
He is the brother of Dick the Albino Bowler.
I have no problem with this program as long as it really doesn’t take jobs from citizens. This program should not be used as a means to get workers that will work for less money or substandard working conditions as that is unfair competition to our citizen workers. As far as the number of work Visas needing to be increased, I don’t think there is any way to know if that is true until we get a grip on illegal immigration. If it turns out we really do need more foreign legal workers then I would be all for increasing the numbers.
Guest workers have visas and play by the rules. They are welcome.
"Guest" workers is the liberal PC Speak for illegals. They are the ones who should be deported with only the clothes on their backs.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
We need to change the rules. For starters:
1) We need a US Visa Exit System. Today DHS has no idea who is overstaying visas.
2) The "anchor baby" interpretation of the 14th amendment needs to change.
I agree. Look at the payroll taxes the landscaper saves. I think about 22-23% up front. Add the fact that he provides no health care, while we, the taxpayers pay for his workers.
In a Nashville Hospital two years ago,the sign said- if you are Hispanic we will provide free care. If you are American- show us your health plan card, or words to that effect.
If I can save 22-23% on labor, a factor of production, shift healthcare to the governement, who do you think I will hire?
Thanks for that post.
That video is disturbing.
I believe the Anchor Baby law was written to alleviate the slave trade adults who had children after they were here.
It would ignite those transgressions of the past which America cannot solve.
If they are legal workers the employer is paying payroll taxes. American employees may or may not get healthcare. The real savings is in wages. The landscaper said he could not find reliable American workers at $7.00/hr. So instead of paying a wage premium to retain reliable workers, he looked to Central America. He also had to compete with other landscaping firms to offer lower prices and they compete by using immigrant labor.
Tell me this - why do comfortable suburban Americans get the benefits of cheap import labor, men who are making about 14K a year? That doesn’t support a family in the US.
You get your lawn mowed cheap; you pay for healthcare for the uninsured; you watch the working poor slip into the underclass and fester, and you escape from them into the pricey suburbs with the two-acre lots that you don’t have time to mow. Sounds like a bargain to me.
“Guest workers labor here to support families back home”
If they are legal, they are welcome. If they are illegal crimigrants, they can GTHOOMC!
You do realize that your “anchor baby” worry is a red herring, don’t you? No citizen can sponsor an alien, even a close relative, until they are at least 21 years old... and able to show that they have the financial resources to sponsor the relative.
People who talk about “anchor babies” don’t know jack about immigration, and shouldn’t be taken seriously.
Walter Dawson, a walking talking example of pond scum.
Well, Mr. Dawson says he cannot find reliable work from Americans. And that’s not just true at 6.93 an hour. A farmer in Pennsylvania gave up growing tomatoes after he couldn’t find reliable American help at SIXTEEN dollars an hour. (He did hire illegals, which he should NOT have done in the first place.)
Perhaps American “workers” (not including genuinely hardworking Americans) should look at themselves in the mirror before complaining about foreigners taking jobs away from them.
So a child born in this Country doesn't qualify until they have a sponser that is a citizen with money?
Guest workers have visas and play by the rules. They are welcome.
Wrong, everyone of those clowns are trying to find some piece of trash to knock up so they can claim a right to stay in the country.
Take the bunch of Indian welders that were brought, under this program, they file a law suit claiming that they were told they could stay in the country legally after there job was finished and now are filing another case for additional pay. Guess who will pay their bills for the next few years while the case is in court.
Here's what NumbersUSA has to say on the issue of "anchor babies":
The United States currently grants automatic U.S. citizenship to almost all children born in the United States, regardless of whether the parents are U.S. citizens, legal residents, temporary visitors, or illegal aliensIllegal-Immigration-Ruling Dec-07 in the United States. Some 380,000 children are born in the United States each year to illegal-alien mothers, according to U.S. Census data. The only exceptions to this automatic granting of citizenship are the children of foreign diplomats stationed in the United States, whose citizenship at birth is governed by international treaty.
"Anchor Babies"
The children born in the United States to illegal-alien mothers are often referred to as "anchor babies." Under current practice, these children are U.S. citizens at birth, simply because they were born on U.S. soil. They are called anchor babies because, as U.S. citizens, they become eligible to sponsor for legal immigration most of their relatives, including their illegal-alien mothers, when they turn 21 years of age, thus becoming the U.S. "anchor" for an extended immigrant family.
While there is no formal policy that forbids DHS from deporting the illegal-alien parents of children born in the U.S., they rarely are actually deported. In some cases, immigration judges make exceptions for the parents on the basis of their U.S.-born children and grant the parents legal status. In many cases, though, immigration officials choose not to initiate removal proceedings against illegal aliens with U.S.-born children, so they simply remain here illegally.
Thus, the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens not only represent additional U.S. population growth, but act as 'anchors' to eventually pull a large number of extended family members into the country legally. In fact, an entire industry has built up around the U.S. system of birthright citizenship. Thousands of pregnant women who are about to deliver come to the United States each year from countries as far away as South Korea and as near as Mexico so that they can give birth on U.S. soil. Some come legally as temporary visitors; others enter illegally. Once the child is born, they get a U.S. birth certificate and passport for the child, and their future link to this country is established and irreversible.
Any comments or have you embarrassed yourself enough already?
We'll be waiting for you to explain why we should pay any attention to you at all when we have immigration experts like NUSA on which to rely. Or perhaps you would like to try to discredit NUSA...good luck with that.
I’ll do it. PING
Also, let the employer be responsible for any and all costs incurred such as health care for these workers. There should be no cost to public sector assistance paid for by the citizen taxpayers.
If employers want “worker units” from other countries, let them assume all the costs involved with said labor.
Good...keep digging that hole.
More from NUSA:
Thus, the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens not only represent additional U.S. population growth, but act as 'anchors' to eventually pull a large number of extended family members into the country legally. In fact, an entire industry has built up around the U.S. system of birthright citizenship. Thousands of pregnant women who are about to deliver come to the United States each year from countries as far away as South Korea and as near as Mexico so that they can give birth on U.S. soil. Some come legally as temporary visitors; others enter illegally. Once the child is born, they get a U.S. birth certificate and passport for the child, and their future link to this country is established and irreversible."
We'll be waiting...
What the heck are you talking about? Read before you post, it’s better that way.
Think before you post and be sure you know what you're talking about.
We're still waiting for you to explain why "anchor babies" are an insignificant "red herring" or, in the alternative, discredit NUSA.
We're still waiting...or do you need a larger shovel for that hole you're digging?
See #22, Apology Accepted.
Didn’t notice you had recanted. No need for you to apologize...
See #25 and realize your mis-guided response.
“You do realize that your “anchor baby” worry is a red herring, don’t you?”
Winner of the Most Ignorant Post of the Day.
I read you on this comment. I think the high water mark came when employers were able to avoid paying a living wage. This came when women entered the work place in large numbers. I have absolutely no quarrel with women who wish to work. The problem was when the employer could then count on two bread winners for a family.
The depression of a living wage then set up the labour force for hard times. I will agree that as long as benefits for the able bodied, reach near totals of hard graft at minimum, there will be shirkers.
My experience is that pay a decent wage and they will break down your doors.
The government has dumped 40 million illegals on America, as they continue to bring in 3rd world "legal" guest workers.
Is there anyone alive that is surprised by this government sponsored insanity?
Here around Columbus, we are filled with illegal restaurant workers and construction workers. Even at the dry cleaners. Do you know if illegals get some kind of visa to work at these jobs? Or are the visas limited to agriculture/landscaping?
>However the answer is not to import people, but to cut the benefits to the non-working class so that they will have the desire to better themselves by working hard at a job.<
Get serious! Cut the benefits to the non-working class? Are you drunk? That’s the most non PC statement I’ve seen today.
"Anchor Baby law" was never written.
Anchor babies are the result of a convoluted SCOTUS interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
The SC simply ignored the Elk precedent when they made their convoluted ruling in the Wong case.
The 14th Amendment was written to give American citizenship to the children of prior slaves..
Thanks for the compliment!
I suggest you read a bit more history.
LOL
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