|
CAIR Letter to INS regarding hiring hall immigration violations December 7, 2002 Michael M. Comfort Acting District Director Immigration & Naturalization Service 4730 Paris Street Denver, CO 80239 re: Immigration violations at El Centro Humanitario Para Los Trabajadores Dear Director Comfort: On behalf of the Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform (CAIR), I am writing to ask why the Immigration & Naturalization Service has not taken any action against the Denver-based organization known as el Centro Humanitario Para Los Trabajadores (i.e., the Humanitarian Center for Workers). Numerous newspaper articles have reported that el Centro, located at 2260 California Street in Denver, is a hiring hall that arranges for jobs for illegal aliens. My personal experience at this hiring hall confirms the media reports. On November 21, 2002, I personally went to this hiring hall. I observed an individual there whose name was in the workers' lottery who was ready to go to work. He previously had informed me that he was an illegal alien. I also questioned a prospective employer outside the hall if he intended to hire workers that day, and he responded in the affirmative. I then asked him whether he would be asking for identification from prospective employees, and he replied, "You must be kidding me." Please find enclosed a copy of the Proposal submitted to the City and County of Denver by the organization that runs el Centro. Please note that in paragraph D (page four) of the proposal, the sponsoring organization openly asserts that the INS has no intention of enforcing the anti- harboring and sheltering provisions of immigration law that would apply to illegal aliens and their sponsors at a place like el Centro. This language not only substantiates the allegation that illegal aliens are knowingly accommodated by the hiring hall, but it also displays an utter disregard of the INS to enforce the law. Your agency's failure to crack down on situations like this appear to have bred contempt for the law of the type displayed in the above mentioned Proposal. Indeed, as the enclosed Issue Brief prepared by the Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR) makes clear, the blatant criminal activity taking place every day at this hiring center couldn't be a more appropriate instance for your immediate attention and enforcement. CAIR urges you to attend to this matter and investigate it as expeditiously as possible. In the event that your investigation confirms the violations of law we alleged, I trust that you will immediately move to halt those violations and arrest the offending parties. America is a country of laws, or at least we continue to tell ourselves we are. We at CAIR share the opinion of the vast majority of Americans and Coloradans as shown in poll after poll in that we want our laws enforced, especially when violations are so blatant and enforcement so lacking they only create further blatancies and violations. Thank you for your attention to this letter. I look forward to your considered written response. And if you find the violations of law we allege are taking place at the hiring hall, I look forward to reading reports about your vigorous enforcement in the very same newspapers that today are reporting your lack of enforcement. Sincerely, Mike McGarry Co-Director Spokesperson, Colorado Alliance for Immigration Reform Matricula consular ID card Home |