No water, sewer for Immokalee residents who can't show U.S. ID's

By I.M. STACKEL (Contact)
6:06 p.m., Thursday, April 2, 2009

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/apr ... nt-show-u/

Families in Immokalee have lost their sewer and water service because they could not produce U.S. government-issued identification cards.

A policy that Immokalee Water and Sewer District governors approved in October went into effect last week, costing some six families basic bathing and toilet access.

Jim Kean, a caseworker for Catholic Charities of Collier County’s Guadalupe Social Services — not to be confused with the Guadalupe Center of Immokalee — sent an urgent e-mail to Collier Commissioner Jim Coletta on Thursday morning seeking help.

The new policy is “unjust, illogical, tilting toward racism and ethnic profiling, and a further marginalization of our farmworker families,â€