Monday, May 01, 2006

Illegal immigrants establish a labor pool vital to the U.S. economy

An interesting article about the lives of some of the undocumented workers in this country. DP

BY BARBARA ROSE AND STEPHEN FRANKLIN, Chicago Tribune

Sunherald.com : CHICAGO - She lives in Rolling Meadows, Ill., teaches catechism at her church, attends parent-teacher meetings at her children's schools and files tax returns on her earnings from a $7.50 per hour restaurant job.

Rosa and her factory-worker husband are not unlike millions of working parents struggling to improve their lives except for one important difference: They are here illegally.

The Mexican natives are part of a large and growing pool of illegal workers whose presence in the local economy is an open secret that persists because of mutual accommodations between migrants hungry for jobs and employers hungry for cheaper labor.

As immigrant rights advocates prepare to take to the streets Monday in another of the mass demonstrations that have jolted cities across the country, illegal workers no longer are invisible. Their role in the economy is being hotly debated, but few deny their importance.

"Many industries rely on them as important components of their workers," said Rob Paral, a Chicago-based consultant and research fellow at the American Immigration Law Foundation. "Many operators would not be in business if they didn't have this labor."

Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.

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