ISRI member calls for immigration reform - Scrap Industry News - Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc - Brief Article

Recycling Today, Oct, 2002

A Utah-based scrap recycler and long-time member of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) is urging the trade group to push for immigration reform.

Speaking at the ISRI Commodity Roundtables held in September in Chicago, Don Lewon, president of Utah Metal Works Inc., Salt Lake City, declared that the scrap industry's workforce is threatened by new immigration crackdowns imposed after last year's September 11 attacks.

"Like many recyclers, particularly in the West and South, we have a number of talented and hard-working Hispanic workers at our company," said Lewon.

Lewon stated that both ISRI and U.S. business owners at large have not acknowledged their dependence on Hispanic immigrants. "The Hispanic U.S. work force is large, and we've failed to recognize the impact of the Latino worker on the U.S. economy," he remarked.

Since the September 11 attacks, the federal government has been much stricter in its enforcement of employer documentation of workers, mandating the filing of such proof of citizenship documents as the I-9 form.

"The 9/11 attacks have caused a change on the labor front. The federal government is now using industry vicariously as agents of the Labor Department," he declared.

Lewon said his own company is helping undocumented immigrants retain legal assistance to stay in the U.S., but said it will be difficult for companies to go it alone on this issue.

He called on ISRI to work with other trade associations to advocate reform. Lewon listed the construction, health care and several other industries that would be natural allies for ISRI in its efforts to push for reform.