Thread: Your feedback? NC Labor Commission takes up for illegals

Any comments or feedback? We are considering a press release calling for a resignation.

By KRISTIN COLLINS, Staff Writer for News and Observer

The N.C. Department of Labor says federal immigration officials misrepresented
themselves when they arrested four dozen illegal immigrants doing construction work
at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro.


Officials with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they rounded up
the men just after they arrived for work Wednesday morning. They would not comment
on exactly how the workers from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Ukraine were taken
into custody.

"We're not going to discuss how we do our business," Sue Brown, an immigration and
customs spokeswoman in Atlanta, said Thursday.

However, Allen McNeely, head of the state Labor Department's Occupational Safety and
Health division, said the workers were lured into the arrest by a flier announcing a
mandatory Occupational Safety and Health Administration meeting.





McNeely said one of the contractors who employed the immigrants faxed him a copy of
the flier. It is printed in English and Spanish. It tells all contract workers to
attend an OSHA briefing at the base theater and promises free coffee and doughnuts.

McNeely said that neither his division nor the federal OSHA was involved in the
arrests. He said the trick has eroded trust between the Labor Department and the
workers it is trying to keep safe.

In recent years, the Labor Department has made an effort to reach out to the state's
thousands of immigrant workers, especially those in construction, because they are
among the most likely to be killed or injured at work.

"We are dealing with a population of workers who need to know about safety," McNeely
said. "Now they're going to identify us as entrappers."

Those arrested were employees of private contractors doing roofing, electrical,
masonry and other construction work on the base. An investigation determined that
they presented false documents when they entered the base, immigration officials
said.

Staff writer Kristin Collins

As long as they received their briefing and were given coffee and doughnuts they shouldn't have anything to complain about.

McNeely said that neither his division nor the federal OSHA was involved in the arrests. He said the trick has eroded trust between the Labor Department and the workers it is trying to keep safe.

Is this jackass for real?
I can tell you that your Labor Department has eroded the trust of the citizens of your state. Get a clue buster. And stand up once in a while. Your brain can't take the pressure.

You'll have my support if you go that route. I think a 'shot across the bow' might be more appropriate.

We are continually confronted with the argument that immigration is a federal issue. Now the appropriate agency of the federal government came onto a federal installation and dispatched the duty for which they exist.

If N.C. Department of Labor was as diligent in its duties, this scenario would never have been necessary. Until Allen McNeely, and others in the N.C. Department of labor perform their duties in the manner expected of them as employees of a member state of a sovereign nation, they should be grateful for the federal agencies who *are* doing their jobs.

Originally Posted by dataman

As long as they received their briefing and were given coffee and doughnuts they shouldn't have anything to complain about.

McNeely said that neither his division nor the federal OSHA was involved in the arrests. He said the trick has eroded trust between the Labor Department and the workers it is trying to keep safe.

Is this jackass for real?
I can tell you that your Labor Department has eroded the trust of the citizens of your state. Get a clue buster. And stand up once in a while. Your brain can't take the pressure.

Is this real? The NC Labor Department (a government agency) is accusing ICE (another government agency), of entrapment???
Dataman, I couldn't have said it better!

Why don't we properly channel our thoughts?

Allen McNeely
Deputy Commissioner and Director of
Occupational Safety & Health Division
919-807-2863
allen.mcneely@nclabor.com

Joyce Bulluck, Executive Assistant to the Commissioner
jbulluck@mail.dol.state.nc.us
919-733-7166

Cherie K. Berry
Commissioner of Labor

Here is the press release that went out this afternoon.

We will activate the entire network and email alerts list for assistance with calls and emails Monday morning.

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-6242.html

Please place future feedback under the release thread.

W

Thanks,
I guess I missed this thread. I always check the news thread first. I hear about this on the radio and I was livid. WWNC blasted him for what he did.