http://wvgazette.com/section/Business/2006061712

June 18, 2006
‘Illegal means unlawful’


By Joe Morris
Business Editor

WHEELING — Immigration law falls within the federal government’s domain, and the state has a statute against hiring illegal aliens.

But neither bothers much with enforcement.

Last month, Ohio County Sheriff Tom Burgoyne’s deputies arrested three self-admittedly undocumented workers from Mexico whom they found on a work site in Wheeling, Burgoyne said. They were digging ditches in a residential neighborhood where television cable belonging to cable-TV giant Comcast Corp. was to be laid.

The policy of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is to serve such offenders with papers to appear in federal court deportation hearings, which can be scheduled as long as a year and a half in the future.

Two of the workers arrested in Wheeling had already been served with such papers, though their dates had not yet come up. The third was given a hearing date, and all three were then released, free until their court dates arrived.

But Burgoyne said no one, in his estimation, really expected them to show up for the hearings. “They’re gone, they’re lost to the wind,” he said.

ICE has told Burgoyne and his deputies that they are not authorized even to ask if suspects they encounter are in the country illegally, he said. The agency has also instructed him not to jail illegal aliens if there are no other criminal warrants out for them.

But these are instructions that he has been ignoring. “If they’re illegal, that means unlawful,” Burgoyne said.

(The county can charge the federal government $50 a day to cover costs for jailing each suspect held on federal offenses.)

Officials from ICE refused repeated requests to comment for this story.

Undeterred by federal inaction, Burgoyne and Ohio County prosecutor Scott Smith decided to go after the employer of the undocumented workers, under a state law that bars their employment.

Comcast, through one of its contractors, had hired the subcontractor that was responsible for the ditch-digging. That company is called Consultants Unlimited Inc., and it is based in Midlothian, Va. A woman answering the phone at Consultants Unlimited denied that the workers were illegal. She refused to identify herself.

But Comcast says it has fired the company because of the arrests.

“Comcast has discontinued its relationship with one of its subcontractors, Consultants Unlimited, who has clearly violated our company’s policies and procedures,” said spokeswoman Jody Doherty.

Smith’s office had the state Division of Labor investigate the case, and it is close to presenting him with its evidence, said division spokesman Karl Angel.

The division is investigating two other cases involving alleged violations of the undocumented-worker law, both in the Morgantown area, Angel said. “But the number of these cases is not indicative of the problem,” he added.

From January 2005 to the end of last March, the Division of Labor had conducted 2,944 such investigations, according to division records. In the first three months of this year, there were 230 violations.

Violations of the law are a misdemeanor punishable with a fine of up to $1,000 for each first offense and up to $5,000 for second offenses.

The workers told Burgoyne they were earning $13 an hour and living in a Red Roof Inn in nearby St. Clairsville, Ohio. One deputy, on overhearing the figure, spoke up: “Sheriff, that’s what I make.”

“A lot of people laid off from the mills or mines would be tickled to death to make that much money,” Burgoyne said.

To contact staff writer Joe Morris, use e-mail or call 348-5179.