Mayor Bloomberg of New York Speaks Out About Illegal Immigration
LIN: Still no word on the status of the crew aboard a U.S. military helicopter that went down eight hours ago, southwest of Baghdad. The chopper was apparently on combat patrol when it crashed. Freed American hostage Jill Carroll touchdown in Germany this morning and is set to arrive in Boston tomorrow. Just in the last hour, a statement released by Carol called her kidnappers criminals, who threaten her repeatedly, and that she was forced to make a propaganda video before she was released. Jesse Jackson joined hundreds of protesters in downtown New Orleans today. At issue? The voting right thousands of displaced city residents after Hurricane Katrina. Minority groups want to delay upcoming mayoral elections scheduled three weeks from today. And from the Big Apple, a huge turnout of protesters opposing proposed tougher laws on illegal immigration. Marchers say they simply want to take part in the American dream. One possible solution to America's immigration problem is to expel everyone that's in the country illegally. It's a drastic and highly unlikely scenario, but CNN's John King asks New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg the hypothetical question, what if?</s>JOHN KING, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Seven Line through Queens weaves through more than 300 years of immigrant history, legal and illegal. A lesson Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes those in Washington calling for a crackdown.</s>MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK: We're not going to deport 12 million people. So let's stop this fiction. Let's give them permanent status.</s>KING: Over coffee in an Indian diner, pondering the what if. What would a New York City and America would look like if illegal immigrants were forced out of shadows and forced to leave? (</s>On camera): What would happen to the economy here?</s>BLOOMBERG: Well the economy would collapse, because there are whole industries that couldn't survive. And even if Americans were willing to take those jobs, would take a long time before they could.</s>KING (voice over): Take illegal day laborers out of the picture and the impact would be on the construction industry.</s>MOISES, IMMIGRANT (through translator): I've just arrived, barely four months ago. We all deserve an opportunity. We all deserve a chance to work because it is hard in our countries.</s>KING: Overall, illegal immigrants make up 5 percent the U.S. workforce, but they hold 24 percent the jobs in farming; 17 percent in the cleaning sector and 14 percent in construction; and 12 percent in food preparation. Edwin came illegally from China 17 years ago. Works as a cook. (</s>On camera): Are you ever afraid? That police or somebody will try to check your papers or for some reason throw you out of the country?</s>EDIWIN, IMMIGRANT (through translator): This is such a country of opportunity, I'm willing to stay and take the risk because from day it day, life is pretty good here.</s>KING (Voice over): Those advocating a crackdown say secure the borders first, then deal with the 12 million or so illegals already here.</s>MARK KRIKORIAN, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: We actually calculate that over a period of five years you could probably cut it in half, if you put your mind to it. And I'm not talking machine guns and land mines, I'm talking normal law enforcement.</s>KING: Finding them would be a nationwide challenge. An estimated 12 million in all; 3 million in California; 1.5 million in Texas.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Florida, Illinois, New York. But nowadays, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, so they've been spreading out around the country.</s>KING: Shamila is the face of another dilemma if Congress wanted any major crackdown. She has been here illegally for 20 years. Her nine-year-old son was born here, so he's a U.S. Citizen.</s>SHAMILA, IMMIGRANT: I am afraid when I go outside that, God forbid, for some reason I'm pulled over or something like that happens and I'm sent back, or be even separated from my son.</s>KRIKORIAN: It's not the job of the American people to make up for the mistakes and bad decisions of these illegal alien parents.</s>KING: The mayor calls such talk nonsense.</s>BLOOMBERG: These people are going to be here permanently let's recognize it and get on with it. And I just don't have a lot of patience listen to people that say, it shouldn't be. Maybe it shouldn't be. You have a right to that opinion, but it is.</s>KING: A half million illegal immigrants blended to this city 170 languages, a place the mayor says should serve as an example for those he believes are trying to ignore both history and economic reality. John King, CNN, New York.</s>LIN: And what if you have a business that depends on immigrant labor? That's why we invited Tom Demaline to talk with us. He has a business called Willoway Nurseries, that really depends on immigrant labor. Good afternoon, Mr. Demaline.</s>TOM DEMALINE, WILLOWAY NURSERIRES: How you doing?</s>LIN: Good to talk to you. You're out there in Cleveland, Ohio. You have this terrific business, the dream of your family. You hire guest workers, right? They are actually here legally, so far as you know?</s>DEMALINE: Correct. Right.</s>LIN: But why do you hire Mexicans and not Americans?</s>DAMEALINE: Well part the H2A program that we go through, it requires us to source American people that want to work here, work are documented people, or people that live in that area. And we bring in about a hundred local people each year in the job search, and we give them opportunities to get started in the nursery business. Some work for us for a day, some work for a week, some work for a month and --</s>LIN: But backbone of your work force is Mexican labor, right?</s>DEMALINE: Correct. We need about 350 people on a seasonal basis to start at the beginning of the season, and stay with us throughout the entire year to get our product to market.</s>LIN: So how will you characterize how person this labor force is to you?</s>DEMALINE: Well, it's very important, because it's -- we need them in a timely manner, we need them to be able to come to work. And agricultural business is seasonal. And it's also hard work. Working in the wet, and cold and the spring, the hot, and the heat in the summer, and it's tough work.</s>LIN: And aren't Americans willing to do that work?</s>DEMALINE: Generally, most people just aren't willing to do it. They would rather may be work in a food industry, or other areas like that, but we're not raising people anymore to come out and pick tomatoes and grow trees work on lawn maintenance.</s>LIN: But in your particular business, if you know, under some scenarios that you're hearing in public, if all the undocumented workers were rounded up and sent back to their native countries, would that affect you?</s>DEMALINE: Well it would affect our industry, because you know, we supply a lot of landscape contractors and other nurseries, and if they lose their workers, even though we would have a legal workforce, it's going to affect the whole economy. If there's nobody to put the plants on the ground, we're going to lose out. Currently, agriculture supports about 3.5 jobs for each worker that we employ. Well, if you take half of workers that are in agriculture, which would be about 750,000 people, in that times the 3.5 people, like 2.6 million people that are tax paying American citizens that could lose their jobs.</s>LIN: And also potentially the price of produce go up?</s>DEMALINE: Yes. The price of everything's going to go up we have -- if simple price and demand. If there are less workers, going to have to pay more for labor to get the products picked, and growing and to market.</s>LIN: And even worse if businesses end up going overseas? Is that a scenario? Because by some pie in the sky scenarios is well if you get rid of all the undocumented workers, more Americans would have jobs. But that doesn't necessarily -- that isn't necessarily the outcome.</s>DEMALINE: No, no. If we have to shove stuff offshore, it's going to -- it's two or three problems there. And we've done that with so many industries so far, with a lot of manufacturing has been moved offshore. Some of the computer workers have been move offshore. If we move food source offshore we're in risk in many different ways. One, we're at risk of embargoes or Third World countries holding us hostage and not having any food, similar to the problems we're having with oil right now. The second is in offshore of our food products is the safety, health and safety issues. Most countries don't have this stringent EPA regulations for food safety and pesticide controls.</s>LIN: I hear you. Tom Demaline, what you're saying grow in the USA and that may very depend on immigrant labor.</s>DEMALINE: It does depend on immigrant labor to grow a good product.</s>LIN: That's an education. Thank you very much, Tom Demaline, appreciate.</s>DEMALINE: Thank you.</s>LIN: Well, at the top the hour, a special edition of "Lou Dobbs" titled "Broken Borders". Lou reports from Cancun, Mexico, following the North American Summit that just wrapped up there. And tomorrow, on "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer. Wolf is going to talk with the Mexican President Vicente Fox. That's tomorrow morning, 11:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN> Barbaric treatment, or a teaching tool for the straight and narrow. Up next, shock therapy for kids and why some parent are defending it. And later, living the American dream through eyes of a Mexican immigrant.