Asheville News

Carl Mumpower: Let me know if there are businesses employing illegal immigrants in Asheville

Jason Sandford November 12, 2008

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

Asheville City Council on Tuesday night discussed the E-Verify system, and whether or not it should require city contractors to use the system. The computer system allows employers to check the work eligibility status of employees or prospective employees.

I missed the full discussion, but from what I could tell, City Council did nothing. And Councilman Carl Mumpower couldn’t let it go. Mumpower has made it his personal crusade to eliminate illegal immigration, and to weed out any illegal immigrants who might be working in the community and “stealing” jobs from perfectly qualified Americans. Mumpower took partial credit for the federal government’s immigration raid on Mills Manufacturing in Woodfin earlier this year, a raid that went down as the largest in Western North Carolina’s history.

So before the cameras televising the council meeting went dark Tuesday, Mumpower appealed directly to viewers to let him know if there are any illegal immigrants working in Asheville. He said that City Council, by doing nothing in terms of the E-Verify program, was essentially complicit in breaking federal law by allowing illegals to work in Asheville.

Councilwoman Holly Jones, who simply does not get along with Mumpower, couldn’t let his remarks go without registering her disgust.. Jones said “the idea that anyone is contributing to someone’s job loss is a really sad statement. That’s not what happened tonight.”

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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6 Comments

B Smart November 25, 2008

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Quoting Zipperhead: "The problem is. Perfectly qualified Americans won’t do the jobs the Illegal immigrants will do."
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This is a myth. Americans (and legal immigrants) WILL do these jobs, just not for the pennies on the dollar wages that are being paid to the illegal immigrants – wages often below the federal minimum.

Besides that, it’s a safety issue. An illegal immigrant working construction will not complain about unsafe working conditions because he has no legal protection. An illegal immigrant working in a food processing facility will not protest about unsanitary practices. Can you say e. coli? The media has been saying it a lot in recent months/years. An illegal immigrant who gets hurt on the job can just be pushed out the door. They don’t have workers compensation.

Many businesses take advantage of illegal immigrants because they know they have no rights. It is unfair to those immigrants. It is unfair to the immigrants who came here legally. It is unfair to the American public.

Do you think businesses give all those savings to their customers? Maybe a small portion, just to remain competitive, but they pocket the rest. The rich get richer off the backs of illegal immigrants.

Rather than supporting illegal activity (crossing the border illegally), why not lobby your representatives to make the process for legally immigrating for migrant workers easier?? Legal workers are less likely to be taken advantage of.

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No One In Particular November 13, 2008

And I should add, and this comes from experience, that the reason immigrant workers are not paid high wages doing farm work is because the farmer’s (at least the local ones) do not make enough money off the crops to pay their workers much more than minimum wage.

Members of my family are farmers, and they do pay over minimum wage to their workers, but not very much over. That’s because they simply cannot afford to pay them more and still have any money left to live on. Remember this also…high food prices in the grocery store DO NOT equal high profits for farmers.

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No One In Particular November 13, 2008

You have hit the nail on the head Zipperhead! I mean, try getting any American to pick beans or tomatoes on a farm all day long. You can’t even get legal immigrants to do that anymore! Once they get legalized, they go on to find easier, higher paying jobs. If the government runs all the illegal immigrants out of the country, there will be a food shortage because there’ll be no one left to harvest the crops.

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Bryan Freeborn November 12, 2008

I love the heavy handed government regulated solutions carl has to offer.

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Zipperhead November 12, 2008

The problem is. Perfectly qualified Americans won’t do the jobs the Illegal immigrants will do. We need Illegal immigrants to build our houses so that we the middle class can afford them. Illegal immigrants also have a strong work ethic. The will work dusk till dawn for half of what most Americans earn. Let see the hands of unemployed Americans that will be willing to work Dusk till Dawn seven days a week for $8 dollars an hour. That’s what I thought. Move over and get out of the way, my Illegal immigrants friends have houses to build that we call affordable housing.

Mumpower, what a whoot. Good luck getting your mansion built.

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Jeremy November 12, 2008

Mumpower needs to cool his jets a bit; his arrogance and knee-jerk reactions (i.e. his crying wolf at Plasticard-Locktech) are going to make people just roll their eyes at him…more than they already do.

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