W.Va.: illegal immigrants to be deported
LOGAN, W.Va. (AP) - Authorities plan to deport seven suspected illegal immigrants caught working on a hospital construction project, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The workers were taken into custody Tuesday at Logan Regional Medical Center, state and federal authorities said. Now they are awaiting deportation, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs said.

The men were working for a contractor hired to perform minor renovation work, according to the hospital.

The contractor, Nashville, Tenn.-based Batten & Shaw Inc., said a drywall firm hired for the job was responsible for verifying the men were working legally.

In turn, the subcontractor, Nashville-based Rocklyn-Thomas, said it thought the men were working legally.

'This all got started because people up there didn't want Mexicans in the area,' Rocklyn-Thomas owner Rocky Sizemore said. 'If not for immigrant workers, there would be no construction in this country.'

Undocumented workers, including U.S. citizens, working for construction firms from outside West Virginia is a big area of concern for the state, said Fran Cook, deputy commissioner of the state Division of Labor. While West Virginia has agreements with Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky and Virginia to collect withholding taxes for residents who work for contractors with jobs in West Virginia, there are no such deals with other states, Cook said.

'There's a lot of construction people coming in here, working and not paying the withholding,' she said.

Labor already has 18 workers policing the construction industry and the agency recently hired five new inspectors who will target other industries such as coal mining, timber, restaurants and hotels.

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