42 illegal immigrants believed to be Mich. oil spill workers detained in Texas

While, for months, you heard about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, you probably haven’t heard much about the one in mid-Michigan, which happened in July.  What I find interesting–no, outrageous!–is that while Michigan has a near-15% unemployment rate, the jobs cleaning up the spill that sent 820,000 gallons into a Kalamazoo River tributary went to  . . . illegal aliens.

Sorry, but I just don’t buy that cleaning up oil spills is “the work that Americans won’t do.”  In fact, I know plenty of hungry, desperate, able-bodied Michigan men who would have loved a job like that.  But they weren’t hired by Phillip Hallmark and Hallmark Industrial.  Nope, that guy wanted work on the cheap.  And so did, apparently, Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, which oversaw the spill clean-up. It’s nauseating.  Some oversight. The people of Michigan are victimized once by the oil spill.  Then, they are victimized a second time when the clean-up jobs go to those who are here illegally and living off of the benefits and services funded by those who are here legally and break their backs, hoping to get jobs like these.  It’s ironic, as we approach Labor Day, that actually the major labor unions in America protect this kind of job predation by illegals, and it’s part of the death of those unions.

 
They are in the process of being deported, said Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On Wednesday, the Chambers County Sheriff's Department was contacted about two buses unloading workers in Winnie, a small city east of Houston. Of 59 initially detained, 42 were found to be lacking proper identification, Sheriff Joe LaRive said.
LaRive said the buses were from Michigan and had been chartered by Phillip Hallmark, who runs Hallmark Industrial. The company had been a subcontractor on the cleanup of the spill along Enbridge Energy Partners' Line 6B near Marshall, until it was dismissed this week.
The line ruptured in late July, sending about 820,000 gallons of crude oil into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River.
LaRive said about 40 people from the buses got away. He said that although he doesn't have independent knowledge that the people were working on the spill, given that the buses were from Michigan and Hallmark had been a subcontractor, he could "surmise they were the workers" on the spill.
The sheriff said he has not spoken to Hallmark, and a call to Hallmark Industrial for comment was not returned to the Free Press on Thursday. Immigration officials declined to discuss whether an investigation is under way.
Earlier this week, the Michigan Messenger -- part of a national news network funded by liberal donors -- reported that several workers at the spill site working for Hallmark confirmed anonymously that they were undocumented. But an Enbridge spokeswoman said contractors and subcontractors are required to meet federal and state labor laws and that Hallmark's workers had the required documents.
U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer of Battle Creek, whose district includes the site of the spill, is calling for an investigation by federal labor officials.
"Our community asked the Environmental Protection Agency and Enbridge to use local labor, and the fact that Enbridge allowed one of its contractors to hire illegal immigrants is appalling," said Schauer, a Democrat.
Read more: 42 illegal immigrants believed to be Mich. oil spill workers detained in Texas | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/20100903/NEWS06/9030334/42-illegal-immigrants-believed-to-be-Mich-oil-spill-workers-detained-in-Texas#ixzz0ymIUvMZD

 

These contractors had to know these men were here illegally, since they were lacking the proper paperwork (and probably had foreign accents if they could speak English at all). We’re talking about 82 people, if you include the 40 people who got away. That’s quite a few illegals. They had to know that these were not people here legally and working here legally.
But watch. The companies will get away with it because Barack Obama has ended workplace enforcement operations. Bush, to his credit, at least did do a decent amount of workplace enforcement, even if he was an amnesty advocate. Barack Obama and J-No ended it. And, again, you can also blame Obama’s EPA, which, as I noted, apparently didn’t care enough to insist on the employment of American workers for the job. Think about that on Monday, when you hear of Barack Obama praising America’s labor, er . . . labor unions.
America, Desperate, But NOT Serious.