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Posted on Thu, Oct. 05, 2006

Norman: Illegal workers on his site show need to secure borders
SEANNA ADCOX
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The discovery of illegal immigrants on a job site owned by Republican U.S. House candidate Ralph Norman's development company underscores the federal government's failure to secure the borders, his campaign spokesman said Thursday.

The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer discovered illegal immigrants working at sites Norman's company is developing in Rock Hill, according to an article to be published Friday. Signs at the job sites bear the Warren Norman logo. Two employees at one site and a third at a site across the street told the Observer they're in the country illegally from Mexico.

Norman, a Rock Hill developer and freshman state lawmaker, has made immigration a central issue in his campaign to unseat Democratic incumbent congressman John Spratt. In Norman's TV ads, he pledges to "reject amnesty and instead fight to control our borders."

The discovery of illegal immigrants working on land owned by Warren Norman Co. will not change his campaign tactics, spokesman Rob Godfrey said.

"This is an illustration of the problem Ralph is going to Congress to fix," he said. "The federal government has failed to secure the borders, failed to stop the flow. ... The federal government has put the burden on the small business people to be immigration enforcers."

Godfrey said he was unsure who contracted the work on land owned by Norman's company or who employs the immigrants.

The Warren Norman Co., run by Ralph Norman and founded by his father in 1948, has nine employees and subcontracts its development work, Godfrey said.

"We follow the law as well as what law there is," Norman told The Associated Press during an interview in August. "The problem is we've had no law for the most part."

Norman said his company doesn't get involved in who subcontractors hire and won't. "We don't get into that much detail. It's up to them to hire their people." Asked in August if he would fire subcontractors if he learned they employed illegal immigrants, he said he didn't know. "We've had people over the time that if we found were not legal, we didn't keep them."

Godfrey said the Warren Norman Co. has five ongoing projects. He knew of no federal immigration violations against the company.

According to a state incident report obtained by The Associated Press, the Warren Norman Co. was cited last spring by the Department of Health and Environmental Control for workers burning mobile home materials. The report says an anonymous caller alerted authorities to a group of Hispanics stripping mobile homes and burning the materials on a site near Rock Hill. Godfrey did not know whether the workers were illegal or whether they were fired.

Spratt and Norman were at a debate in Sumter on Thursday night.

At a debate Monday in Newberry, Norman again hammered on the issue. He said illegal immigrants cost society and contribute to rising health care costs. He told of visiting a hospital recently and seeing Hispanics in the waiting room. He said he assumed they were illegal.

"Talk to your doctor in Newberry and see how he's been overburdened with medical malpractice," he told the audience at the debate. "Talk to your doctor about illegal aliens he's having to treat."

He said immigrants should be tracked and businesses who hire illegals should be fined.
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