NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A midstate business owner said he has been knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Watch: Business Knowingly Hires Undocumented Workers

The business owner, who wanted to keep his identity hidden, said that the illegal immigrants do “a great job” and that they are “very proud of their work.”

For the past 15 years, the owner of a mid-state manufacturing company said he has knowingly been hiring illegal immigrants to work for him.

He said he's tried to hire legal residents, but it never seems to work out.

“If they do come in, they'll work two or three days and go, ‘This is too hard of work. I'm not going to work here,’” he said.

“The Hispanics come in. They want a job. They come every day. They're here every day. They like to work. If we’ve got any overtime, they like to take the overtime. And they do a good job,” he said.

The Channel 4 I-Team recently sent a Hispanic producer in to several businesses to see if he could get a job without any documentation.

Some store managers either didn't ask for papers or encouraged him to get fake ones.

The owner said he understands why companies look the other way when it comes to hiring illegal immigrants.

“You can't get any other help; there's no other people to hire,” he said.

The man insists that without the workers, he'd have to close his business.

“Instead of 4 million, we'd put out 400,000 if I was really lucky, because you just can't do it by yourself,” he said.

The man said some of his workers make between $50,000 and $60,000 per year.

He said they all have documentation that he knows is fake.

He said he hires a company to take care of his payroll so verifying their Social Security numbers is up to that service.