Isabel M. Estrada Portales
Washington's Voz
07/29/2005

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) expressed outraged at the recent immigration practices by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which arrested 48 immigrant workers in North Carolina by organizing a deceptive Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) meeting.

“Immigrants in this country contribute more to the well-being of America than they ever get credit for, and instead of ambushing undocumented workers through sham immigration tactics, officials should focus on a humane approach to immigration,” said Hector M. Flores, LULAC National President.

The incident took place on July 6, when ICE agents targeting undocumented contract workers at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro , N.C arrested the unauthorized aliens.

The Federal and North Carolina departments of Labor were also not pleased by the situation; since they consider this jeopardize their ability to keep the safety of all workers, and creates a big obstacle in the road of trust building with the undocumented population, which suffers disproportionately from injuries in the work place.

Latino and immigrant workers are among those facing the greatest risks of injury and death on the job. According to the latest US government data, on average, 15 workers were fatally injured and more than 12,000 workers were injured or made ill each day on their jobs in 2003. Of the 5,559 workers killed by job injuries in 2003, nearly 900 were immigrant workers.

“At a time when injury and fatality rates among undocumented workers are soaring,” said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson, “it's unconscionable that the ICE agency would lure immigrant workers in North Carolina into arrest by using a phony OSHA meeting.”

ICE put out a flyer to all workers at the construction site, in English and Spanish, telling workers to attend a mandatory health and safety meeting and promising coffee and doughnuts.

“Workers need to be able to rely on OSHA for their safety on the job - - and often their lives - - without fear of repercussion. For immigration officials to undermine that trust in the name of an “undercover” raid is fundamentally wrong,” said Chavez-Thompson.

The AFL-CIO leader concluded by inviting the Bush administration to focus on crafting real solutions to the broken immigration system “instead of scaring workers into silence by these types of immigration enforcement actions.”