Mumpower wants immigration bust

by staff reports
published March 21, 2008 12:15 am


ASHEVILLE – A city councilman is calling for federal immigration agents to investigate downtown construction workers, who he says are likely undocumented workers.

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Councilman Carl Mumpower wrote a March 20 letter to special agent Del Richburg with U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement in Charlotte, saying many of the workers on three major downtown projects did not speak English and were likely undocumented.

A UNC School of Business study showed 78 percent of non-English speakers in the state were undocumented, Mumpower said.

“Based on these conservative estimates, we have 50-plus illegal aliens working within this concentrated area of downtown Asheville,â€