As the Senate continues the Shamnesty Shell Game, local law enforcement is doing the job federal officials won’t.
The sheriff’s department has developed a remarkably effective—and controversial—way of catching illegal immigrants: Deputies in patrol cars pull up to a construction site in force, and watch and see who runs.
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“It’s not wrong for them to run, but it’s not wrong for us to chase them either,” said Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who created his Illegal Alien Task Force in April to target construction sites in this Florida Panhandle county.
Of course we hear from the usual suspects.
Immigrant advocates say the technique is repugnant, and the ACLU says its constitutionality is questionable.
Illegal immigrants are leaving town. And builders are worried the crackdown will deprive them of the labor they need to take part in a building boom in which Panama City’s Beach cheap spring-break motels are being torn down and replaced with high-rise condos.
And what illegal immigration story would be complete without the sob story from one of the law breakers.
Mexican illegal immigrant Jose Madrid, 28, said he has been unable to find a construction job over the past six weeks because of the crackdown, and hasn’t been able to send money to his parents and his 7-year-old son back home.
“We immigrants, we are leaving Panama City. People are afraid they will be deported,” he said. “The companies don’t want to hire illegal people. Now they’re only hiring those with papers.”
Developer Louis Breland is finishing the first phase of a $750 million beach condo project.
“Subcontractors could not function without immigrant laborers for painting, rebar and steel work. They are the best workers,” he said. “Without them, the cost of construction would be 10 times as much and nothing would get built.”
Legal workers should be insulted.
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