City Council member Rod Tam's use of a racially charged term to describe undocumented workers in Hawai'i and recent arrests on O'ahu and Maui have put the spotlight on illegal workers, but the problem in Hawai'i is relatively small when compared with most Mainland states.

There is no clear picture on the number of people who are illegally in the state. Neither the U.S. Census Bureau nor the federal government keeps count of the unauthorized migrant population.

But a study released by the Pew Hispanic Center in 2006 estimated that there were between 20,000 and 35,000 people who were illegally in Hawai'i in 2005, or 1.5 percent to 2.7 percent of the state's population.

In another study, the Immigration Policy Center, which is a division of the American Immigration Law Foundation, estimated the state's undocumented population at about 33,000 in 2005.

By comparison, the Pew study estimated California's population of undocumented migrants at 2.4 million, or 6.6 percent of its population, followed by Texas at 1.4 million, or 6 percent of its population, and Florida at 850,000, or 4.7 percent of the state's population.

States with estimated undocumented populations similar to Hawai'i are Rhode Island, at 20,000 to 40,000, and Idaho and Louisiana, both at 25,000 to 45,000, according to the Pew report.

Unlike states on the Mainland, where many migrants cross borders or take a boat into the country undetected, it's not that simple in a state like Hawai'i where the nearest land is more than 2,000 miles away.

Those who are here may have entered legally as visitors, but overstayed their visas. Others come in with false identification as part of a Mainland construction crew or a foreign fishing vessel and never leave.

The Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was created in 2003 to target people who are in the U.S. illegally. The agency combines the efforts of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Customs Service.

Wayne Wills, the agency's special agent in charge in Hawai'i, said his office does not know how many undocumented workers live in Hawai'i. He also said the number of arrests and the outcome of cases since 2003 were not readily available.

But Wills said his agency is actively investigating leads and is partnering with other law enforcement agencies, the media and public to "get to the bottom of the egregious hiring of unauthorized aliens." Wills said the agency targets the workers, as well as the companies that hire them.

RECENT RAIDS IN ISLES

Within the past six months, agents have conducted raids at construction sites in downtown Honolulu, the airport post office, and three restaurants on Maui. More than 30 people were arrested on suspicion of illegally being in the country.

Despite the arrests, Wills did not want to characterize the seriousness of the situation in Hawai'i, except to say it "is of great concern." Because these people are in the country illegally and many are not highly educated, he said, they tend to flock to low-paying, blue-collar jobs, such as on small farms, in restaurants and hotels, and in the construction industry.

"Not only is it displacing jobs for citizens or lawful permanent residents of this country, it also is putting individuals in a situation where they become victims," Wills said. "What we have seen is that these individuals that are hired to work that don't really have the authorization to work are paid less and perhaps in some cases do not receive the full set of benefits that other employees would. It is ripe for exploitation by certain companies to cut costs."

Wills said he doesn't believe there is an underground or organized effort to smuggle workers to the Islands.

"We have no information that leads us to believe that," Will said.

The issue was publicly aired in May at a City Council committee meeting when Tam used a racial slur to describe undocumented workers from Mexico. He said he didn't like the idea of contractors and developers bringing "wetbacks," or unskilled workers, to the Islands.

Tam apologized for the slur and was censured by the City Council, but some in the local construction industry agreed with him that there is an organized effort to bring undocumented workers to Hawai'i. Union officials argued that many of them are employed by non-union contractors, who pay lower wages and can submit low bids for projects because they can keep their expenses down.

UNIONS CONCERNED

Lance Yoshimura, assistant business representative of the 8,000-member Hawai'i Carpenters Union, said he believes undocumented workers are paid at least 33 percent less than the standard wage of union carpenters and often are paid in cash. These workers also aren't trained as well as union carpenters, he said, and that creates a safety concern on job sites.

Kyle Chock, executive director of Pacific Resource Partnership, echoed the concerns of Wills and said the illegal workers are taking away jobs that could be going to residents and immigrants who are legally in the country. Pacific Resource Partnership is an organization of contractors and the Carpenters Union.

With tourism down and the economy slowing, Chock said, more people will be out of work and have to compete with undocumented workers for jobs. Hawai'i's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in May was 3.5 percent, a four-year high.

"When you have growing unemployment, the fact that local people are losing jobs to individuals who are unlawfully in our state and in our country, that's a big problem," Chock said.

He didn't want to speculate on how widespread the problem is in Hawai'i, but believes it is a growing issue.

"I'm a little more concerned now than I was six months ago about what's happening with the economy," Chock said.

But the argument that undocumented workers pose a threat to the local labor force is not shared by everyone.

UNION CLAIMS DISPUTED

Attorney Maile Hirota, who specializes in immigration law, said the problem isn't as serious as the unions are portraying it to be. Hirota said that many of the jobs that the undocumented have are ones that no one else wants.

"The vast majority of the cases are people that are not taking away jobs from Americans, but actually doing jobs that American people don't want," said Hirota, a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "A lot of kids these days don't want to work in a hotel, don't want to wash dishes or work in a restaurant or landscaping or a lot of these jobs that are hard labor."

Hirota represents undocumented workers as well as employers who she said want to do the right thing, but are limited because of stricter immigration laws that were adopted after 9/11. Many of the undocumented are married to U.S. citizens and have children who are citizens, but Hirota said she can do very little to help them.

"The problem is our immigration system doesn't provide very many opportunities for people to become legal or for employers who want to hire undocumented people to do so legally," Hirota said.

Hirota does agree with Wills and Chock, however, that these workers are ripe for exploitation.

"The story that's not told is the millions of dollars in taxes that are being paid by undocumented people that they will never see in terms of Social Security benefits or other public benefits that our tax dollars provide," she said.

"Undocumented people are never going to get those, so they're actually part of what is propping up our Social Security system."