The Vulnerable and Exploitable Immigrant Workforce and the Need for Strengthening Worker Protective Legislation

California Governor Pete Wilson issued an Executive Order creating a Joint Enforcement Strike Force to target the underground economy.'State labor agencies had just concluded an eighteenmonth survey of 13,000 California businesses suspected of engaging in underground economic activities, such as paying employees cash "under the table."The survey revealed that thirteen percent of the employers failed to report and pay employment taxes as required by law.The labor agencies issued more than 3200 citations and assessments, amounting to $9.5 million, for labor code violations and failure to carry workers' compensation insurance. 2 As a result of these violations, the state was losing approximately three billion dollars each year in income taxes alone, 3 and millions more in unemployment and disability taxes.California's new found interest in clamping down on the underground economy is not surprising.The state has been unable to balance its budget for four years running.This year's deficit stands at two billion dollars. 4 Meanwhile, the underground economy, which supplants an estimated sixty billion dollars in legal business transactions in California, is depriving the state t Attorney, Asian Law Caucus.B.