Thread: No crackdown on illegals at Otto in C'ville

No crackdown on illegals at Otto in C'ville

August 10, 2007
By Ben Lefebvre STAFF WRITER
CARPENTERSVILLE -- Reports of the U.S. Department of Labor auditing the village's largest employer in a hunt for undocumented workers appear to have been exaggerated, Otto Engineering President Tom Roeser said Thursday.

Roeser said the Labor Department alerted his human resources department in June that the company in the heart of "illegal means illegal" country would be the subject of a general audit -- not one focused on illegal immigrants, as was reported in the past week in the New York Times and in an area newspaper.

The audit notice's repeated references to employee's I-9 forms -- employment eligibility forms required of both citizens and noncitizens -- along with an atmosphere in Carpentersville that Roeser said has raised everyone's hackles about immigration matters, initially led his human resources department director to believe that the government specifically was on the lookout for undocumented workers.

But when asked by The Courier News why the Labor Department and not the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would handle illegal immigration matters, Roeser went back and clarified the matter with the human resources director and Labor Department officials.

The result?

"It's routine," he said of the audit. "In general, they'll look at whether we have a sufficient number of men, women and minorities and whether we're paying equally among workers."

Representatives from Homeland Security and the Labor Department confirmed that the former, not the latter, would be in charge of searching for undocumented workers.


Debate fed confusion

The confusion over the audit is the price of being the largest employer in a town consumed with debate over illegal immigration, Roeser said.
"The whole thing is so horrible that my HR person would think the federal government would be coming in here because of an atmosphere created by our own local government and residents," he said. "That made her believe this was more about illegal immigration than about fairness in employment. How do you create that kind of environment?"

He has his theories. He said he was concerned that allegations made by supporters of village Trustees Paul Humpfer and Judith Sigwalt and their proposed Illegal Alien Immigration Relief Ordinance -- which would target employers and landlords harboring illegal immigrants -- have created a "witch hunt" atmosphere.

Roeser spoke out against the trustees and supported their unsuccessful challengers during April's village board elections, moves that resulted in letters to newspapers and blog posts insinuating that his company hired illegal immigrants.

Both trustees have said the proposal was meant as a public safety issue. Sigwalt said the issue of illegal immigration may have created a tense atmosphere in the village but that she believes the government still should search for illegal immigrants at Otto.

"Do I think maybe they should check? Yes," she said. "Why not just do a check and be sure to clear the air? I would think that if someone had nothing to worry about they would not be sensitive or on edge."


Roeser confident on audit

Roeser said the company received a clean bill from an audit the Labor Department performed four years ago and that he is confident the latest audit will turn up little, if any, wrongdoing.
"We're a growing company and we need stable workers," he said. "I don't have a problem finding them."

Otto has projected revenues of $85 million this year and employs about 500 people to manufacture control grips, switches and two-way radio accessories.



http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/cour ... S1.article

Why go after the little guy when the big catch is right in the fields, hotels, and construction. They should go after the farm labor contractors first. These are businesses run by those who were once illegals. Been there, know that.

Please go after the casinos in Las Vegas...the Bellagio BRAGS in the Newspaper that they hire illegals....