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Labor department official criticizes method in immigrant arrests
7/8/2005 11:14 AM
By: Associated Press

(RALEIGH) - An official with the North Carolina Department of Labor is criticizing federal immigration officials for how they arrested about 50 illegal immigrants doing construction work at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

The official says federal officials misrepresented themselves, luring workers into the arrest by a flier announcing a mandatory Occupational Safety and Health Administration meeting.

Allen McNeely is the head of the state Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health division. He says the trick has eroded trust between the Labor Department and the workers it is trying to keep safe, especially after efforts to reach out to the state's immigrant workers in recent years.

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