A Big American salute to Butler Co, Ohio!


Well, all across the country, illegal aliens are taking construction jobs once held by Americans. And now one county in Ohio has set up a program to make sure that employers have no excuse for not hiring legal available workers.

Lisa Sylvester reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In Hamilton, Ohio, students are learning to hang drywall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do ceilings, we bend drywall.

SYLVESTER: The local carpenters union is teaming up with Butler County to offer a program to train American and other legal workers in the construction field. Ryan Krause is one of the students.

RYAN KRAUSE, CONSTRUCTION STUDENT: I felt it was a great opportunity for me and the family. Something my boys love doing. I just wish it would have started about 10 years ago. SYLVESTER: Many of Ohio's construction jobs are now being filled by workers who are not in the country legally.

MICHAEL FOX, BUTLER COUNTY COMMISSIONER: It's depressing. The market sours. It's hurting American workers in what they can be paid.

MARK GALEA, OHIO CARPENTER'S UNION: A lot of the employers that use undocumented workers fail to report them, don't pay taxes. And it's hard for fair contractors to compete with that.

SYLVESTER: County Commissioner Michael Fox was fed up with hearing from contractors that there are no Americans to fill these jobs. So he decided to start a job training program.

FOX: We're going to train people for construction industry jobs. We're going to certify that they are legal, if you will, and then we're going to offer them up to you. So we're going to try to hit that argument head on and say, if you can't find people, we've got them for you.

SYLVESTER: Fox wants builders to sign a pledge to hire only legal workers as a condition to receive permits. And he's not the only one in Butler County, just outside of Cincinnati, who is not waiting for the federal government to solve the nation's illegal immigration crisis.

Sheriff Richard Jones has started a hotline for people to report employers who hire illegal aliens.

SHERIFF RICHARD JONES, BUTLER COUNTY, OHIO: I've run billboards throughout the county, newspaper ads telling the businesses that if you hire illegals, it is illegal.

SYLVESTER: Jones does not have the authority to detain the illegal aliens simply for breaking immigration laws, but he can go after the employers for violating tax laws.

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SYLVESTER: Sheriff Richard Jones says it costs the taxpayers in his county about $900,000 a year to house illegal prisoners. He sent a bill to the federal government, but so far has not received any money -- Kitty.

PILGRIM: Thanks very much.
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