Thread: MO: Probe of workers angers ACLU

Probe of workers angers ACLU
By Nancy Cambria
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Aug. 16 2007

Union suspicions • Local carpenters believed some construction site employees
were illegal immigrants.

At issue, privacy • O'Fallon, Mo., should not have let union see workers'
Social Security numbers, group says.


O'FALLON, MO. — The local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sharply
criticized city officials Wednesday for releasing the Social Security numbers
of workers at an affordable-housing project last month.

Anthony Rothert, legal director for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, said O'Fallon
officials broke the federal Privacy Act by releasing the numbers in response to
a public information request made by the local carpenters union.

Under federal law, the city should also be barred from requiring any employer
to turn over I-9 forms or use them as the basis of any investigation, he said.
The forms authorize worker eligibility.

City officials and the union allege that subcontractors are using illegal
immigrant labor on the project.

Rothert notified the city by letter Monday of the ACLU's concerns and requested
a year's worth of public documents pertaining to public record requests
involving Social Security numbers.

O'Fallon Mayor Donna Morrow called the ACLU's motives "purely political" and
said it was another indication of how cities and local residents are being
hamstrung in their struggling efforts to curtail illegal labor in their
neighborhoods.

"When do the local people that are affected by people coming in and not paying
taxes and everything else — when do they get to have a say in this?" she asked.

City Administrator Robert Lowery, who first advised that the union seek the
documents under the Freedom of Information Act, could not be reached for
comment. In a prior interview, Lowery said the city had been given the OK to
release the documents by its attorney. City Attorney Kevin O'Keefe declined to
comment Wednesday.

Last month, the city provided members of the Carpenters District Council of
Greater St. Louis and Vicinity with 36 of the I-9 eligibility forms for
subcontractors working at Southernside, an affordable-housing construction
site. The developer of the project, Hennessey Development Inc. of Clayton, is
using $13 million in state and federal tax credits over 10 years and $13.5
million in tax-exempt bonds approved by a county agency for the project.

At the time, Lowery said he had advised members of the carpenters union to
formally request the documents after the union complained of suspicious labor
activity at the site. The union has been picketing there since spring.

The union, also on Lowery's advice, then hired a private detective to research
the Social Security numbers contained on the forms. Tim Flora of Mid-West
Protective Services Inc. concluded that the majority of the numbers were
fraudulent.

City officials then used the information to press the state attorney general's
office and the St. Charles County prosecutor's office to undertake a joint
investigation of the site on Weldon Spring Road, just west of Highway K.

Lowery said he did not want O'Fallon's police department to investigate because
the city would run the risk of being accused of racially profiling the workers,
who are mostly Hispanic.

The ensuing investigation of Hennessey Development and subcontractors H & H
Drywall of Tulsa, Okla., and Openlander Siding of Lake Saint Louis has yet to
be resolved.

On Tuesday, county prosecutor Jack Banas' office issued subpoenas to all three
of them, O'Fallon Police Chief Jerry Schulte said. Banas declined to comment on
a running investigation.

Peter Hennessey, president of Hennessey Development, declined to comment on the
ACLU involvement. Previously, he said the subcontractors had provided all
necessary employment information and that the situation was out of his hands.

He also accused O'Fallon of siding with the union because his workers are
nonunion and his firm is using out-of-state workers to build the 220-unit
complex. An official with Openlander said the employees have all the proper
documentation. Mike Hill, president of H & H Drywall, could not be reached for
comment.

Rothert said the ACLU is also concerned that O'Fallon and other public bodies
such as the Missouri Housing Development Commission have enacted rules
requiring developers receiving public support on projects to provide I-9 forms
to prove the legality of their workers and subcontractors.

"The law is clear that this is not an appropriate use of an I-9 form," added
Omar Jadwat, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project based
in Washington.

O'Fallon and the housing commission set up rules granting them the right to see
the I-9 documents after illegal subcontractors were discovered last year at
O'Fallon Lakes, another affordable-housing project also supported by millions
of dollars in state and federal tax credits and tax-exempt bonds.

The ACLU's move locally comes on the heels of new federal employment rules last
week requiring employers to fire workers whose Social Security numbers fail to
match the national database and who cannot provide proof of their legitimacy.
The rules are designed to give greater teeth to labor law enforcement and stem
the flow of illegal labor in the country.

Jadwat said the ACLU's concern about O'Fallon is in keeping with the
organization's opinion that using employee Social Security numbers to enforce
immigration laws opens the door to mistakes and other issues that could
infringe on employment rights. He said the Social Security registry is
notoriously inaccurate.

"It's a clearly unwise kind of rule," he said.

Nancy.Cambria@post-dispatch.com

636-255-7214
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/s ... enDocument

What else is new?...ACLU = American Communist Leftist Union

It's the same old story.......everybody who makes one move in dealing with these people and those aiding and abetting them is acting illegally but the real criminals are doing absolutely nothing wrong.

You know, lawyers can be disbarred for collusion in criminal activity and willfully trying to get clients off when they know, for certain, that they are guilty of a crime.

Maybe something should be done to start having these ACLU lawyers disciplined for their conduct?