Black laborers in the construction industry used to be the norm, but with the increased migration of Latin Americans, the construction industry slowly became more Latino. Washington D.C. based concrete construction firm Miller & Long once employed a workforce that was 80 percent black, but as those black laborers slowly retired, they were replaced with Latinos, which now make up 71 percent of the company's workers.
Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson is asking the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals for assistance in enforcing a recently passes immigration law that has come under some scrutiny from various business groups. The law requires that employers verify employees, contractors and subcontractors through the federal employment verification system.
Washington State officials have announced that they will screen potential farm hands for immigration violations before matching them to jobs. During the screening process, they will not use the federal verification system, making the matter more of a gesture than actual action.
A new Texas rule will force immigrants to prove that they are living in the United States legally before they can obtain a driver's license. The new rule, which went into effect on October 1, also requires vertical licenses instead of horizontal ones issued to U.S. citizens.