New Jersey Has Become a Border State

New Jersey has one of the highest household incomes in the country. It also has one of the worst illegal immigration problems.

In recent years, New Jersey has been nicknamed the “Warehouse State” for its rapidly expanding warehouse industry. The question no one seems to be asking is: who’s actually working in all these warehouses?

Years ago, I worked as an IT manager for a company that was directly involved in this industry throughout the state.

I would occasionally visit the warehouses of bigger clients and saw firsthand how illegal immigrant labor had become a core part of the workforce for even the largest corporations. If I were to name names, you’d recognize every single company and be shocked. The people picking and packing your goods in America aren’t Americans.

Even without the inside knowledge I had from co-workers, anyone with an ounce of common sense could recognize that the people working in these warehouses and factories were illegal immigrants.

For one, the language barrier was obvious. Most of them only spoke Spanish, and the agencies supplying workers to the warehouses knew this: every one of their employees had to be bilingual.

The companies that contracted with the workers would sometimes organize daily travel vans to get them to and from work because they couldn’t drive and the jobs were far from public transport.

Everyone worked as a day laborer earning minimum wage. This system provided plausible deniability to all sides, operating with the appearance of legality while in reality engaging in a massive illegal labor scam. How did this happen?

These agencies would go into highly populated Hispanic neighborhoods, market jobs that were less favorable for the lowest legal wages, and only verify legal status if their client demanded it (shocker, most didn’t). Even then, they weren’t verifying whether or not the licenses workers provided were valid. They just needed to check off a box stating that they’d seen something that looked close enough.

Over the years I worked there, I saw only a handful of black people in any of these warehouses and maybe one white guy. They technically didn’t discriminate based on race in who they hired, but they did do everything possible to cater to the illegal Hispanic market and abandon the American worker.

These were jobs that years ago would have been a stepping stone for someone to find gainful employment and eventually progress into management roles within the company. But instead, they’ve commodified these jobs into day labor contracts while turning a blind eye to all legalities, since they’ve offloaded that responsibility to a third-party recruiter.

The great lie is that Americans won’t do these jobs. They would do these jobs if they were competing in a fair labor market where everyone plays by the same rules. But when Americans have to compete against illegal immigrants for the same jobs, we always lose.

The situation isn’t getting any better. New Jersey continues to be dominated by the very Democratic politicians who have allowed this problem to grow substantially over the quarter century I’ve lived here. Illegal labor is hidden in plain sight in my state, but Democrats treat it as a point of pride. To them, it’s charity for the less fortunate seeking refuge in our country, rather than the betrayal of American citizens. Phil Murphy, our previous governor, even bragged publicly about harboring an illegal immigrant in his home.

The system that facilitates and profits from illegal immigration isn’t a great deal for the illegal immigrants either. Their immigration status forces them to live and work in the shadows of society. Some are handcuffed with cartel debts for years on end at the threat of violence against themselves or their families.

Meanwhile, working-class Americans looking for opportunities are shut out as a consequence of weak immigration enforcement and corporate greed.

The sad reality is, this state doesn’t care about either the illegal immigrant or the American worker.