Agricultural Personnel Management Program
University of California

8/19/00 News Report -- Charlestown (W.Va.) Gazette

The state of West Virginia will no longer do business with companies that employ illegal immigrants, Gov. Cecil Underwood announced Friday.

"Taxpayer dollars should not be used to conduct business with companies that operate outside the law to gain a competitive advantage," the governor said.

Underwood directed the state Division of Labor to prepare a list of companies that had employed illegal immigrants, and to share that information with the state purchasing division.

The southern West Virginia office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has picked up a record number of illegal immigrants this year - 205 between Oct. 1, 1999, and Aug. 4, 2000, up from 168 the year before.

Early on May 23, INS officials raided the Coliseum at West Virginia University in Morgantown. In the raid, they removed 23 undocumented workers employed by USA Remediation of Warrenton, Va., and Keystone Abatement Services of Pittsburgh.

The workers were originally from Central America and Eastern Europe.

In sworn statements taken by the INS after the raid, 15 of 21 USA Remediation workers said they earned significantly less than the $21.45 an hour required by law. Many said they earned $11 or $12 an hour.

In July, several workers building a golf course at Stonewall Jackson State Park near Weston disappeared shortly before an INS investigator showed up. A Lewis County sheriff's deputy had discovered during a routine traffic stop that two of those workers lacked proper identification.

That contractor, Ranger Construction of Palm Beach, Fla., worked for McCabe-Henley, a Charleston developer that has a contract with the state Division of Natural Resources to build a golf course, lodge and cabins at Stonewall Jackson Lake.

The director of a statewide labor organization praised the governor for his decision.

"Great, it's about time," said Steve White, director of the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation. "We're happy he's seen the light on this issue."

White blames the hiring of illegal immigrants at the WVU Coliseum on a bidding system that rewards the lowest bidder. If a bid is too low, he said, contractors are forced to cut corners on worker safety and quality.

"We should insist on high standards, instead of anything goes, with low bid as only consideration," White said.

"It's like the old adage: You get what you pay for."