Michael Russo

After Sen. John McCain was hammered last year for taking a reasonable stand on immigration reform, this controversial subject became a non-issue for this year's presidential candidates. However, it remains a key concern for Americans — particularly those in the construction, landscaping, and service industries. How future legislation in this area plays out will cut to the very core of our nation's economic well-being.

While RSI contractors typically gravitate toward the conservative end of the political spectrum, we are hoping our readers are aware of the acute economic dangers that a hard-line immigration policy would represent.

The idea of hunting down and deporting illegal immigrants has actually received some support in local border towns and state legislatures despite cries of warning from local business organizations. Instituting such a policy on the state or national level would be economic folly. Such a move would cost taxpayers billions, strip cities and towns of important worker groups, and ultimately bring key industries in states such as California to a virtual standstill. Of course, simply opening the gates to a flood of illegal immigrants isn't the answer, either.

Dr. William F. Ford shared some eye-opening immigration statistics with roofing material and component suppliers at the 26th annual SPRI conference Feb. 9 in Tucson, Ariz. Ford is the Weatherford Chair of Finance at Middle Tennessee State University and formerly served as the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

The short of Ford's discussion on "immigrationomics" is this: baby boomers are retiring, and American women of child-bearing age are simply not having enough kids to replace the nation's workforce.

That's the big picture. In the RSI industries, even if the U.S. experienced another baby boom, only a few potential workers would be attracted to tough construction trades, such as roofing, siding, and insulation.

Either way, U.S. population growth will likely remain at less than 1 percent through 2017, which could have a devastating effect on America's real gross domestic product (GDP), according to Kevin Kliesen of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. In his study, "As Boomers Slow Down, so Might the Economy," Kliesen predicts that the nation's real GDP growth rate would drop from 3.03 percent to 2.25 percent without immigration.

The worst-case economic scenario shows that, by 2028, America would not be a very fun place to live. It's also the last thing that readers would want for their children and grandchildren.

Who is hiring all the illegal immigrants in the construction industry? It's the subcontractor, of course! As much as we hate to admit it, if all illegal aliens were to leave the country tomorrow, the imputed labor shortage in the United States would hit 6 million, according to Ford.

That's why it's essential that RSI contractors rally and push for a reasonable immigration policy at the city and state levels. Experts such as Ford expect federal legislation to be slow in coming, which may be a good thing considering the problems employers have had with the "e-verify" Social Security number-matching system.

As previously reported in RSI, there was a two-month waiting time for Social Security to verify employees id numbers, as well as a 3 percent error rate.

"This resulted in wrongful termination suits by employees against employers," Bill Good, executive vice president of the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA), says. "Once again, the employer has been placed in the role of 'enforcer' when it comes to immigration."

Ford, who immigrated to the United States from Germany in the late 1930s during the rise of national socialism, suggests that RSI's readers "remember their roots and what the Statue of Liberty continues to stand for."

Unfortunately, it's easy to blame illegals for our current economic hardships despite the fact that Ford's statistics show just the opposite. At the very least, we need to ensure that hardliners take a reality check before introducing punitive immigration policies.

MICHAEL RUSSO has been reporting on the roofing, siding and insulation industry for 27 years. He can be reached at mrusso@questex.com
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