State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) recently weighed in on the increase of Haitian migrants moving into north Alabama. While immigration, legal or otherwise, has long been an issue, a controversy over chicken plants busing in Haitian workers has reignited the issue in the minds of Alabama residents and political leaders.
Orr blamed the influx of migrants partially on chicken plants and other industries for recruiting cheap labor and federal officials for failing to act and protect Alabama communities.
“[T]his is associated with the poultry industry, and they're bringing in workers to work in their factories and their processing plants, and that's what they do now,” Orr said Friday on Huntsville WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.” “The problems that are brought to the community could be crime, health care needs because these folks won't have insurance, so we'll pay for that in the hospitals, and then they'll have children perhaps, and we'll have to educate them and put them in the classrooms, and most of all of them won't speak English, so now we've got to do a lot of remediation."
He continued, "Just go down the list of the costs visited on the taxpayers when we see illegal immigration, or even in this case, perhaps it's probably legal, and I say that with air quotes. You know, all those costs visited on the local communities and state government, and for what? Cheaper chicken or cheaper widgets? You know, it's a bad bargain.”
Orr said lawmakers in Washington, D.C. often talk a big talk about fighting immigration but back down when it comes to following through.
“Politicians are complicit, and particularly at the federal level, they all come home and talk about how illegal immigration is terrible, it's killing the country and stuff, and then it's, well, what are you doing about it?” Orr said. “And even when the Republicans have been in charge, and presumably, and I'm assuming the Republicans are anti-illegal immigration, they've done nothing. And, you know, but they'll talk the game, and getting it done, nah, it ain't happening because, you know, they're complicit, in my opinion.”
While some companies argue that lower labor costs help keep prices down for the end consumer, Orr said the trade-off isn’t worth it and that he’d rather pay more for workers to have a “decent wage.”
He said one solution to this issue would be to enforce the laws in Alabama that require businesses to use E-Verify when hiring.
“Right now in Alabama, it's a requirement that E-Verify is used by employers when they hire new employees. There's no enforcement, however," Orr explained. "But in Georgia, they say you've got to attest or affirm that you're using e-Verify every time you get that business license. Well, I tried that in Alabama, and I had a room full of lobbyists and associations, et cetera, that just ‘No way, Arthur, no way is just going to happen’ and came out in droves, and the bill never had a chance.”
“And it's a low-cost, no-cost measure to get E-Verify on the books, but you have to do it,” he added. “And with a very minimal burdensome requirement to just verify and use E-Verify. That tells me everything I need to know…There are things we can do, but when it comes to political will, and it wasn't there several years ago, and I don't think that story's changed… As long as the donor class are kind of running the show behind the scenes, nothing substantial will get done on this particular issue.”
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