Employment Law, Part I

How serious is employment law for the small business owner? Very serious and let me tell you a true story; a horror story, which will make you think about the seriousness of these problems. In San Antonio TX, one of our car wash trucks was driving down the highway and a Border Patrol officer passed them. We have a company that does the washing on site; http://www.CarwashGuys.com. Along the way, they stopped two trucks and handcuffed illegal Mexican aliens from the company’s work trucks. Our team passed on the way to work. They had just come out of the shop and had two workers on board who had been working for Labor Ready Co, for a year and a half earlier and were still employed from time to time. We got extra workers and filled our service truck with temporary workers to work for us as they needed extra help with the full schedule that day.

The border patrol officer finished off the trucks from the other companies and saw that we had Hispanic workforce in the back and stopped our truck after chasing it down the highway. It turns out that Labor Ready had hired the illegals because they were given a false ID; I question Labor Ready procedures. Labor Ready charges us $ 11.95 per hour for workers who pay $ 5.40 per hour. That’s fine with us on those super busy days. So it’s a deal and it saves us from background checks for jobs that aren’t as serious as flushing car lots. Well, we found out that 4 of the five workers that we had obtained from Labor Ready did not have green cards or US identification of any kind, so they were handcuffed on the road and picked up. Well, we don’t hire illegals anyway. But think about it, we hired labor from a reputable company across the country, a franchise called Labor Ready. They take care of all these things and charge us for the workers.

We know they are overcharging, but it’s worth it for temporary extra labor for one day. They told us that there are certain questions they can’t ask you when hiring, like are you a US citizen or where were you born or things like that. I can’t believe we have laws in the banking industry called “Know Your Customers ‘Laws”, but in the workplace we don’t have “Know Your Employees’ Laws.” We have an unspoken do not ask the employee anything except when he can start and explain the type of work. We have banking laws, so we catch money launderers and those who are working hard not to pay the taxes they owe.

So it’s okay for the government to enforce those laws through private enterprise, but it’s not okay for employers to ask questions to protect national security and avoid embarrassment. Of course, in this case it is not a crime to hire someone who gave you false information, and we cannot collect damages from a company that followed labor laws. So what the hell are we doing here? We also want to help enforce the law, just like all true Americans. But we have so many laws in place that prevent us from helping the situation.

By the way, the workers who were handcuffed called us at 7 in the morning two days later and they were ready to work and asked us what time to stay. They were picked up at 9 am handcuffed and sealed and deported that day. They came back in one day ready to work in 2 days. We have a border patrol, what a complete joke; protecting America, my ass? Why not plant a local currency on these illegals and track them by satellite and find out the leaks in the system and plug them? National Security or Homeland of Opportunities. You step up the border patrol and catch these people and document the number of deportees on a board, but they return the day back to the country. This is a true story, you can call me for more information.

We have an idea to go to the border patrol and give them free truck wash every morning and ask them to go through the worker records and remove them from the crew. Eventually, the yellow truck will be known for not hiring illegals. A few weeks of that and everyone who comes to work for us from Ready Labor will know. Is this what we have to do to connect the system? Can’t the border patrol guys figure it out? Will we do it later? If you can’t enforce our borders, open them. But don’t lie to America’s small businesses that we are somehow protected at our borders. We are not. This is a sham. Didn’t the Jordan Commission spend years crafting a plan only to never implement it? Why do we waste or breathe? This is pure politics, not reality; another of Smoot’s points in his book “The Business Side of Government”. One of the workers asked to go back to work for us and wanted to borrow the twenty dollars he spent on the bus ride from Laredo to San Antonio. Even illegals think this is a joke. We told him that he could no longer work for us. He didn’t understand why, because other businesses would have done it, I guess that’s why he was dumbfounded when we told him to get lost. We called the Border Patrol and they said they couldn’t pick it up unless we knew for sure it was illegal. We said you picked it up yesterday. Suddenly legal now? You can try it? No, all we can prove is that your system is down and that Labor Ready is doing an injustice to its customers, shareholders and this country by not enforcing the laws of our country; the same laws, which have provided them with economic wealth over the years. Are they doing this across the country? Yes.

The Labor Ready manager said they didn’t like the laws either, but they needed to make a living and companies need workers. So does this mean that Labor Ready, which has offices throughout Texas, never disclosed this to its shareholders or clients? Yes, which is a gray area at least and a violation of the disclosure law at best. The truth here is that nobody cares. We make rules to appease the masses who vote for these things and tell the people that we are saving them from terrorists. What about terrorists who are dark skinned and speak Spanish? What if an inhabitant of the Middle East spoke Spanish and was a terrorist and told the others that he sneaked over the border that he was from Argentina? They wouldn’t know either. And the business owner hired them through a temp agency, which was making money with the business owner pointing out the labor laws and saying, well, they had fake paperwork, it wasn’t my fault. It may not be the fault of the Border Patrol, but shunning responsibility does not save us from the next attack.

Either we are worried about the next attack or not. I want someone to call me from the INS or the Border Patrol to discuss this and I want a satisfactory answer or we will take this true story and document it and send it to the media one day before we send it out to all the congressmen and senators. If we are not concerned about terrorists, please tell us. If so, fix the leaks. Why does it take 10 years to fix problems, when international terrorist groups only wait 3-5 years between acts? Good question worth answering and with all the BS and rhetoric we are seeing opposition from Hispanic Chambers of Commerce and Hispanic Politicians. With 65% of San Antonio’s Hispanic population not wanting these laws at all, then extend the Mexican border to include San Antonio TX as a free zone. Why not do all of Texas and then we can defend the borders of Texas, which can be a free zone with Mexico?

If you’re just going to talk lip-service and not fix the illegals leaks, then open the borders and forget about it. This is pathetic. We know how to enforce borders and we fine companies that don’t comply, but we allow free entry for anyone who can walk. It amazes me that we have not made mandatory ADA border crossings for people in wheelchairs or with asthma problems. Place 1 foot by 1 inch slopes over the Rio Grande for those in wheelchairs and then nice sidewalks to Washington DC so they can have a baby and run for Congress or become radical speechwriters and advocates for mass demonstrations and riots. . You think I’m joking, right? I’m serious, this is all so untrue and a ridiculous waste of taxpayer breath and money.

End of Employment Act, Part I