Feds Conduct Immigration Raids on Oil-Spill Workers

[Ichingcarpenter]

Sigh. This special report from Feet in 2 Worlds just in:

Federal immigration officials have been visiting command centers on the Gulf Coast to check the immigration status of response workers hired by BP and its contractors to clean up the immense oil spill.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Louisiana confirmed that its agents had visited two large command centers—which are staging areas for the response efforts and are sealed off to the public—to verify that the workers there were legal residents.

"We visited just to ensure that people who are legally here can compete for those jobs—those people who are having so many problems," said Temple H. Black, a spokesman for ICE in Louisiana.

Granted, undocumented work is illegal and all, and Black is just echoing a popular sentiment in Southern Louisiana, where some people harbor resentment toward the Hispanic laborers who stayed after they'd come to help clean up after Katrina, and some people put up signs like this:




More here:http://motherjones.com/rights-stuff/2010/06/ice-immigration-raids-oil-spill-workers

[sandnsea]

1. This is what they should be doing

I'm not about to let BP hire people who don't know their safety rights or are afraid to stand up for them, just so they can save a dollar.

[dkf]

2. I agree