Considering this situation has caused Maria Fotopoulos of Californians for Population Stabilization to develop a sophisticated new analysis of the dangers of the Senate's Kennedy-Bush Amnesty/Immigration Acceleration Bill.
She points out that the huge bloating of the construction industry, driven by cheap money and dubious lending practices, drew in disproportionate numbers of illegals into its work force
With housing being the biggest jobs driver in the post-dot.com boom, it's not surprising that 20 percent of the 7.2 million illegal work force is laboring in construction, including jobs as brick masons; carpet, floor and tile installers; drywall and ceiling tile installers; painters; and other related building jobs. In some specific construction trades, illegal workers account for large percentages of the work force. For instance, according to [the Pew Hispanic Center], 36 percent of all insulation workers are estimated to be illegal, as are 29 percent of roofers and 28 percent of drywall and ceiling tile installers.
(Housing Debt drives immigration - Clarionledger.com August 7 2006)
If the party in housing really is over, many of these newcomers face unemployment:
There's potential to see an unprecedented and ugly bust that would result in large job losses. A bust most certainly would impact the employment status of the estimated 1 million illegals working in construction in the country. These are some of the very illegal workers that government officials would like to offer a path to citizenship—if the boom busts, there will be a large illegal work force unemployed and, by extension for those with spouses and children here, more illegal dependents without a primary provider...Under proposed Senate legislation, large numbers of these unemployed workers could become citizens, further burdening the countryThe prudent thing, of course, would be to delay any immigration relaxation until the economy normalized. But whoever accused immigration enthusiasts like Ted Kennedy of prudence?
