A commercial construction company owner is speaking out about a high-profile illegal immigration operation on a government-funded project in Gulf Shores.
More than 30 suspected illegal aliens were arrested last Tuesday at the site of the new Gulf Shores High School. Kerrick Whisenant is not affiliated with the general contractor on the job, Rabren General Contractors, but he said he understands the challenge.
As the owner of Limestone Building Group, a commercial and industrial construction contractor, Whisenant employs 20 people. He hires subcontractors and works on multiple government construction projects. He said his company follows the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, requiring subcontractors to use E-Verify. However, he said that the system is not foolproof, and sharing documents between companies is a violation.
"The general contractor is not privy to the results of E-Verify of the other companies," Whisenant said. "So, if I have an electrician that is running E-Verify, I don't get to see those results. On some projects, they require further background checks of employees, and we turn in all that sensitive personal data to the owner. They run background checks."
"It would be a violation to share I-9s and other employment documents between companies, so we don't want to share Social Security numbers and employment documents between companies," he explained.
"We're trapped in between contractual compliance and laws that protect privacy of individuals. We don't have the ability of law enforcement to go digging into the personal details of every employee."
Whisenant said he wants the public to understand that on any given job site, the general contractor of record employs approximately 15% of the workforce. A higher percentage are hired by subcontractors, bound by the same obligations the general contractor is bound to when it comes to legal employment practices.
"I think the problem is that the I-9 and E-Verify systems provided by the government are not infallible," Whisenant said. "Illegal immigrants have found ways to work around those systems."
Whisenant said oftentimes, contractors and subcontractors are victims of people lying and being dishonest about their ability to work legally. He said the system has created a nightmare for those attempting to verify the immigration status of employees.
"We need to work together to solve the problem, but we need to be fair to our fellow law-abiding citizens and realize that not every company that is named in these raids is trying to do something nefarious," Whisenant said. "It's actually very much the rarity that a company is doing that."
The process has been frustrating for contractors for many years, Whisenant said, and the challenges will not be solved quickly.
Construction sites have been the targets of multiple immigration raids. However, Whisenant said many businesses are impacted.
"If someone here is looking to get work, they're going to do what they need to do to get work," he added. "So, they may present documents that aren't valid, and the systems the government has in place to check those may or may not come through. The government has yet to provide a fail-proof system to ensure the eligibility."
Whisenant believes companies are being vilified for issues beyond their control.
"It's like if you have a guy arrested on the worksite for drunk driving or burglary," he said. "Well, that doesn't mean the company that he was working for is guilty of DUI or burglary."
The answer to fixing the problem, he said, is to continue putting people in office who will do the right thing.
"We're going to have to stick with people like Donald Trump and successors like him that are willing to stick with this problem and make sure it's all for the betterment of our country," Whisenant said. "My personal opinion is that while I think the enforcement is well-intentioned, I don't think it's fair to ask private individuals and taxpayers to enforce federal law when we're paying taxes for that."
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