Sheriff Fears Illegal Immigrants Cleaning Oil

A sheriff in suburban New Orleans has asked federal authorities to investigate reports that illegal immigrants are working on the Gulf oil spill cleanup effort.

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack A. Stephens said Wednesday that he asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement weeks ago to look into the reports.

Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf

ICE spokesman Brian Hale says the agency has not conducted any work site enforcement at the request of local officials and has not made any arrests.

Stephens says he wants to protect the community from "criminal elements" and not "people who want to earn an honest buck."

Immigrant rights groups lament that the request comes at a time when many people are searching for work.

More on the Gulf Oil Spill:

Read Adm. Allen's Letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward
BP Given 72 Hours to Develop Better Plan
BP's Spill Contingency Plans Vastly Inadequate
U.S.: Oil Response Progressing, Help on the Way
Oil Spill Wildlife Devastation
CBS News Answers Oil Spill Questions
Palin to Obama: "What the Heck, Give Me a Call"
BP's Spill Contingency Plans Vastly Inadequate
Touring the Massive Oil Spill
BP Rig Not the Only One Leaking Oil in Gulf
White House to Allow for Shallow Water Oil Drilling

[myopinionpal]

If you really want to know if the workers are illegals get ten white vans with INS on them and drive them to the cleanup site if the workers keep working after they see the vans they are legal but if they take off running then they were not.

[Ceres6]

I am sure that a number of Americans, those ones that sweat patriotism such as tsigili and sheriff Jack A. Stephens, when they eat a bowl of letter soup, everywhere in their plate they see the word illegal. They certainly believe that illegal aliens are a huge national problem and they are the reason why our country is in such a bad shape. It is nerve wrecking to see how the illegal aliens infiltrated Wall Street and ripped off the American people of more than $2 trillion dollars. And who was going to believe that the illegal aliens received countless billions of dollars in bonuses on top of their multimillion dollars salaries working as executives. We should hate all those illegal aliens working as CEOs of American corporations, and who are making salaries of $125 million per year. And we should detest the illegal aliens for deceiving the American people with the story that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. That evil manipulation by the damn aliens is costing us $1.5 billion every week. But we must make sure the illegal aliens pay for their latest insult to the American people. The contamination of the Gulf of Mexico is something we will never forgive them. Even our beautiful coasts were destroyed by them. Do all those brave Americans propose that we unleash all our pit bulls to chase away the illegal aliens for destroying our economy?

[retiredgustav]

They will be brought over here on a H1B Visa with no way to get home. This is how the majority of them get here. What you see comming over the boarder is only the tip of the iceberg. Corporate America has been doing this for years.

[IndepTex20]

"Immigrant rights groups lament that the request comes at a time when many people are searching for work."

Come on CBS.........name the rights groups you speak of........or is that statement simply another rectall extraction on your part!?

[tsigili]

No surprise there. Illegals have penetrated every part of the US, and they have become a huge national problem, which our President, and our Congress, continue to ignore and do NOTHING about!

Eventually, there's going to be violence in the streets, over this issue.

[IndepTex20]

by nor-one June 10, 2010 8:30 AM EDT
........Must be great to be so law abidding, or do you just want to get rid of them?

It is a nice feeling to be a taxpaying, law abiding citizen and yes, I do want the illegals out of our country!! Thanks for asking!

[IndepTex20]

"St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack A. Stephens said Wednesday that he asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement weeks ago to look into the reports. "

That request was likely placed in the ICE file 13.............

[govtguy]

Too bad "Immigrant Rights" activists are trying to bust our chops because their ILLEGALS can't get jobs. Too frickin' bad. Send the illegals and their activists back to their homeland and complain to their own government. As Bugs Bunny once said "Whatta bunch maroons".

[calgal4]

Guess this will pretty much put the kibosh on illegals going to work cleaning up the oil. I sure wouldn't risk it.

[cac1958]

Right now I have a 28 and 33 year old at home and unemployed. My daughter's last job hired an illegal and her hours were cut them several weeks later the company sold to another company and that company let her go but the illegal remained. I no longer care if they have jobs. If illegals were taking officals jobs and in their neighborhoods this would have been stopped long ago.

[Vertrauen]

??? youu are correct that it is illegal for companies to hire illegals, but that hasn't stopped them...why do you supposed there are so many illegals here and we're in the situation we're in? and it's not posting 'garbage' they're merely debating that jobs are very scarce at the moment and should go to legal citizens before illegals - it's difficult to see anyone struggle - the woman who delivered our pizza the other night had to be almost 80