n increasing numbers, Hispanic immigrants are putting down roots in the Roanoke Valley. They're pouring concrete, opening hair salons and filling classrooms. Some employers, meanwhile, are attributing their success to this new labor pool. In this occasional series, The Roanoke Times explores the local impact of the national debate about immigration.
During a busy Friday night dinner waiter Jesus Malaga serves an armload of food to their Anglo customers. Malaga came to America four years ago from Mexico and, like many Mexican immigrants in Roanoke, first landed a job at El Rodeo.
Dollars and dreams
rom landscaping operations to restaurants and construction subcontractors, legitimate companies in Roanoke are increasingly hiring illegal workers in a kind of don’t-ask/don’t-tell way.
Gallery 
McNeil Roofing workers Walter Giron (left) and Fidel Miranda, both immigrants from Guatemala, help a mechanical engineering firm lower an air-conditioning frame onto a roof. McNeil Roofing President John Williams says Hispanics make up a third of his current crew.
Employers are willing to take the risk because Hispanics “are more reliable, and they do twice as much work as the Americans they used to hire did,” said Christiansburg’s Liz Schack, a longtime translator and quasi-social worker for Hispanics in the region.
At least for the time being. As the national debate over the 12 million illegal immigrants continues to rage, area employers, Hispanic workers and advocates say proposed legislation would mean big changes in the way many companies conduct business.
While it’s technically illegal to hire someone who doesn’t have a valid Social Security card or employment visa, that hasn’t kept 96 percent of illegal-immigrant men in the United States from getting jobs.
In Roanoke, many pay taxes, get a regular paycheck every week or two and even file tax returns, according to several area employers and workers interviewed for this story. Jeffrey Passel, a Pew Hispanic Center researcher, estimates that 55 percent to 70 percent of illegal immigrants in the nation pay payroll taxes. That’s in contrast to the typical image of an illegal immigrant who’s paid in cash and working under the table for a small-scale farm or suburban construction site.
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