Critics slam Harry Reid's immigration remark

By SCOTT WONG
7/14/10 8:23 AM EDT

When a television reporter told Sen. Harry Reid that a 2009 Pew Hispanic Center report found 17 percent of the nation’s construction workers were undocumented, he replied: 'That may be some place, but it’s not here in Nevada.'

Immigration reform critics are seizing on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comments this week that seemed to downplay the number of illegal immigrants working construction jobs in Nevada, even though a recent study found that his home state had the largest percentage of undocumented workers in the country.

When a reporter from KLAS-TV in Las Vegas told Reid a 2009 Pew Hispanic Center report found 17 percent of the nation’s construction workers were undocumented, http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/107.pdf the Nevada Democrat replied: [b]“That may be some place, but it’s not here in Nevada.â€