Thread: State labor officials complain about immigrant arrests

http://newsobserver.com/news/ncwire_new ... 9554c.html

Published: Jul 8, 2005
Modified: Jul 8, 2005 12:30 AM
State labor officials complain about immigrant arrests

The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. -- State Labor Department officials say federal agents who arrested about 50 immigrants at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base abused the trust that the department has tried to build with workers by inviting them to a safety meeting before they were cuffed and taken away.

Officials with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they rounded up the men just after they arrived for work Wednesday morning. They would not comment on exactly how the workers from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Ukraine were taken into custody in charges of using fake documents to get access to the base.

Allen McNeely, head of the state Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health division, said the workers were lured into the arrest by a flier announcing a mandatory Occupational Safety and Health Administration meeting.

McNeely said one of the contractors who employed the immigrants faxed him a copy of the flier, which tells all contract workers to attend an OSHA briefing at the base theater and promises free coffee and doughnuts.

McNeely said that neither his division nor the federal OSHA was involved in the arrests.

He said the ruse eroded trust between the Labor Department and the workers it is trying to keep safe.

In recent years, the Labor Department has made an effort to reach out to the state's thousands of immigrant workers, especially those in construction, because they are among the most likely to be killed or injured at work.

"We are dealing with a population of workers who need to know about safety," McNeely said. "Now they're going to identify us as entrappers."

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Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com

Allen McNeely
Deputy Commissioner and Director of
Occupational Safety & Health Division
919-807-2863
allen.mcneely@nclabor.com

This is how ICE got them. We know because Allen McNeely is telling the newspaper what ICE did to catch the illegals.

This is the same as the old police trick of sending a "you won a free television" notice to individuals with outstanding warrants. When they arrive at the designated location they proceed to have a nice chat with the local law enforcement personnel.
Great strategy!
Be sure to invite them to you next whine and cheese party.