Thread: SC - Unemployed Bricklayers: Workers Are 'Illegal'

Unemployed Bricklayers: Workers Are 'Illegal'
Protesters Gather At Construction Site

POSTED: 5:30 pm EST February 12, 2009
UPDATED: 8:47 pm EST February 12, 2009


ANDERSON, S.C. -- Some people call it racial profiling without a reason, others say it's a suspicious circumstance.

For the second day in a row, on Thursday protesters gathered at an Anderson construction site, demonstrating against what they claim are illegal workers.

The general contractor said that its masonry subcontractor has made assurances that all its workers are in the U.S. legally.

The project is a new Anderson city fire station near Simpson Road and Highway 81.

Protesters, out-of-work bricklayers, were across the street from the site on Wednesday and Thursday.

They are calling on officials to take a closer look at immigration status of the workers who are doing brick and block work on the job, since most appear to be Hispanic.

"This is not about color or nothing like that. It's about jobs," one protester told WYFF News 4.

When the protesters gathered on Wednesday, many of the masonry workers left the job site.

"If they had nothing to hide, they should have stuck around," protester Chad Summerall said. "You can see they have plenty of brick to lay."

The state's illegal immigration reform act requires contractors and subcontractors working on government contracts to use a federal program called e-Verify to check on the immigration status of new hires.

"I can assure you that if the city is doing anything in any way that is contributing to illegal activities, it would be addressed immediately and corrective action taken," Anderson Fire Chief Jack Abraham said.

But the state law does not specify a way to ensure that the verification was done.

A spokesman from Gov. Mark Sanford's office said that there is no funding designated for enforcement of the law.

Anderson city leaders say because of that, they have to rely on the word of those supervising the worksite.

"They just gave us a written verification in the form of e-mail that it has been verified," Abraham said.

Lazer Construction, the general contractor, told WYFF News 4 that its subcontractor handling the brick work, J&H Masonry, has made assurances that all those on the job are here legally.

J&H Masonry has not responded to phone calls.


http://www.wyff4.com/news/18703006/detail.html

How coincidental these supposedly legal workers left the site so it is obvious they had something to hide. Without e-verify this will become commonplace. I watched cspan with defacto Mexican government and anti-America and anti-American worker and open borders proponent Baccera. A caller complained that a contractor he worked for brought 6 illegal alien Mexicans onto a top security installation (Ft Meade) for a government project. In true open borders fashion Baccera said we should legalize them so they can permanently take those jobs from Americans while saying he wants to put Americans back to work. I was stationed at Fort Meade where I was with NSA. This is the last location where illegal aliens who most likely are using stolen or fraudulent identities should be on considering what is on this installation. I have seen them on numerous DOD facilities unsupervised near flightlines and other critical facilities posing a danger to military personnel and other resources used to fight a so called War on Terror. Several were found on an installation near me with stolen identities using fake access badges. Again the so called War on Terror has taken a back seat to open borders and cheap labor and to hell with the security of the American people and the millions unemployed and the millions more to follow.

But the state law does not specify a way to ensure that the verification was done.

This is what concernes me the most, especially on the eve of this massive spending bill being debated by the current administration. When a state makes E-Verify the law ( or god willing, we get it attached to the so called Stimulus bill through Federal law), who is going to ensure that employers are actually following the law by using it! The same authorities that turned their backs on employers who hired illegal invaders in the first place!

It's time to start putting people in JAIL for their failure to obey the law!