U.S. Officials Defend Ploys to Catch Immigrants
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
February 11, 2006
The New York Times
Despite criticism from advocates for immigrants, federal
immigration officials said in recent days that they would not forswear
the practice of impersonating occupational safety officials to round up
illegal immigrants.
Last July, federal agents arrested 48 workers at Seymour Johnson Air
Force Base in North Carolina on charges of being illegal immigrants
after the agents tricked the workers into attending what was billed as
a mandatory training session sponsored by the federal Occupational
Safety and Health Administration.
Afterward, the federal Labor Department, North Carolina officials and
immigrant and job safety advocates criticized the ploy. They argued
that the sting might cause immigrant workers to distrust safety
officials just as the authorities were stepping up efforts to reduce
the disproportionately high injury rate among Hispanic workers.
Lawyers for several labor and immigrant groups said yesterday that they
were dismayed that when they met with officials at Immigration and
Customs Enforcement on Jan. 30, the officials refused to rule out again
using a safety-related ruse to lure immigrant workers.
Marielena Hincapié, director of programs at the National
Immigration Law Center, said, "They said they would not commit to not
doing this anymore, despite the fact that this would have a chilling
effect on workers."
Ana Avendano, a lawyer with the A.F.L.-C.I.O., also criticized
immigration officials for not providing the assurances that safety
advocates were seeking.
"We told them that the population of workers that we're dealing with is
suffering the highest mortality rate and highest injury rate on the
job," Ms. Avendano said. "If immigration officials are going to use
OSHA as a ruse, all they will do is reduce the trust of workers to go
to OSHA with concerns about safety problems."
Dean Boyd, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
emphasized that ruses were standard law enforcement policy. "We're not
going to rule out valid investigative techniques," he said.
Mr. Boyd said that if immigration officials were to do such a sting in
the future, it would be only after coordinating with federal safety
officials.
OSHA officials repeated yesterday the stance they took after the July
raid, saying the agency worked to build trust with Hispanic workers.
They also said they did not condone using the agency's name in this
type of ruse.
At a Senate hearing in October, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of
homeland security, said it was appropriate to use ruses, but he added
that those involving health and safety were not appropriate.
Mr. Boyd said the employment of illegal immigrants at sensitive
facilities like military bases posed a serious threat to domestic
security. He said that, given their illegal status, they might be
vulnerable to exploitation by criminals or terrorists.
"That's why we're aggressively targeting these types of workers at
sensitive facilities," Mr. Boyd said. "We've got an obligation under
the law to do what we need to do to remove those people immediately
from a position where they could do potential harm."
On Thursday, immigration agents arrested nine illegal immigrants who
were working for a subcontractor at the Dugway Proving Ground, a
military testing site southwest of Salt Lake City. Last month,
immigration officials arrested 11 illegal immigrants at Tyndall Air
Force Base near Panama City, Fla.
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