Los Angeles Mayor Makes GOP’s 2008 Job Easier
We’ve just gotta get more Democrats to do this:
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is asking federal officials to rethink their policy on workplace immigration crackdowns that involve established businesses and to focus on employers that mistreat workers instead.
The mayor said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that work-site raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement could have “severe and long-lasting effects” on the local economy, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
ICE made more than 4,900 work-site arrests nationwide in fiscal 2007, a 45-fold increase over the number in 2001, authorities said.
More than 130 undocumented workers were arrested at a San Fernando Valley manufacturing company in February and over 60 workers were arrested for immigration violations at South Bay-area warehouses last week.
Los Angeles companies such as clothing manufacturer American Apparel Inc. have reported being questioned by ICE officials about their hiring procedures.
Villaraigosa accused federal officials of targeting “established, responsible employers” in industries that rely on “workforces that include undocumented immigrants.”
I realise that Los Angeles is heavily hispanic, but one does wonder just who Villaraigosa is trying to please here - or, perhaps its just his racist, MeCHA background coming to the fore? At any rate, we’ll take the easy win, if Democrats will just kindly pick this issue up and run with it…
26 comments April 11th, 2008
