Immigration's Effect on Business in Yuma, Ariz.
President Bush plans to speak Thursday from the town of Yuma, Ariz., about his immigration initiative. Noah Adams talks with Jeanine Rhea, a hotel manager in Yuma, about how the immigration issue affects her daily business.
NOAH ADAMS, host:
Earlier we talked with Jeanine Rhea. She is the general manager of the Hampton Inn & Suites in Yuma. Ms. Rhea says that immigration issues affect her life in a very practical way every day.
Ms. JEANINE RHEA (General Manager, Hampton Inn & Suites, Yuma, Arizona): We get people who come in all the time looking for work here. And, you know, we make sure that everybody is a documented employee and unfortunately, you know, we can't hire most of the people who come in through the door looking for work. Although we have been consistently short staffed in my housekeeping department since we actually opened. But the availability of, you know, documented employees, there really isn't that many, you know, to fill the positions that I need. But unfortunately there's so many people who come in and actually want jobs and want to work but, you know, I just can't hire them.
ADAMS: Are you seeing people showing up there who you're pretty sure have just come across the border?
Ms. RHEA: I would say a fair amount of them. You can tell in certain way. And I would say that that's a fairly true statement.
ADAMS: What certain ways?
Ms. RHEA: I would say just how they come across and, you know, when you do a little pre-interview with them. It's nothing in particular that stands out. It's just, you know, how they actually come across.
ADAMS: How they interact with you?
Ms. RHEA: That's correct.
ADAMS: Do you speak Spanish?
Ms. RHEA: I do not. My entire staff does though.
ADAMS: Now you're saying you're getting people there without documents of any kind looking for a job.
Ms. RHEA: I wouldn't say that. Most of them do have some form of documentation but, you know, upon inspecting it right away you can see that there's something wrong with it.
ADAMS: If the document does look okay though, that's really as far as you go, you can then go...
Ms. RHEA: That's correct, that unfortunately there's a lot of (LAUGH). A lot of the documents that you look at right away, and you can tell.
ADAMS: You mentioned you had trouble getting enough workers. I heard on NPR's MORNING EDITION today that the farm workers, the people who are picking broccoli, for example, are making above $10 an hour. How much can you pay?
Ms. RHEA: I don't pay that. In fact, you know, we had some really great workers prior to the main picking season here, and, you know, unfortunately lost them to higher paying jobs out in the agricultural sector. And that was a problem. You know, now they're kind of coming back. They want their jobs back now that you know, it's not as busy. Though now I actually am staffed up, but yeah it's such a big problem to find documented workers, and good quality workers that it's really going to mess things up if there's some kind of mass deportation without a guest worker program. And people don't seem to understand that.
ADAMS: What sort of a guest worker program do you think would be practical and fair? Have you thought much about that?
Ms. RHEA: Yeah, I feel along the lines, I guess, with what Bush is actually proposing is possibly a three year permit that will allow them to work and then, you know, that may be renewable.
ADAMS: And remind us about the weather, before we go, remind us about the weather there in Yuma. How hot today?
Ms. RHEA: Oh it's suppose to be around 105, 110 today.
ADAMS: And before the summers out?
Ms. RHEA: Oh at least in the 115, 120.
ADAMS: But you like it?
Ms. RHEA: Oh yes. I definitely.
ADAMS: Jeanine Rhea is the general manager of the Hampton Inn & Suites in Yuma, Arizona. Thank you for talking with us.
Ms. RHEA: Thank you it was my pleasure.
ADAMS: And incidentally the White House tried to reserve some rooms there for the President's visit, but the Hampton Inn was fully booked.
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