Photos, Driver’s Licenses and Names Are Not Enough

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported yesterday:

“Eight illegal aliens in a minivan stopped by state police at the turnpike interchange in New Stanton Monday were headed to work on a publicly financed housing project in Jeannette, according to state police and housing officials.”

They were traveling in a van with a broken windshield.  When stopped by the police, several ran away.  They were subsequently apprehended and discovered to be in the country illegally.  They were traveling Maryland to Jeannette to work as framers on a $3.2 million public housing project.  

The illegal workers were hired by the framing subcontractor, O. C. Cluss Lumber of Uniontown, PA who was supposed to show documentation of the workers’ identifications and addresses to the general contractor,  Steve Catranel Construction of Pittsburgh.  The article quotes the executive director of Homes Build Hope Chad Ruffner, as saying:

"That's their crew.  They check their papers every day.  I've seen them checking in.  They do that every day.  I've seen them check them off."

Even though the contractor and the framing contractor supposedly checked the papers every day, it seems that they are still hiring illegals using false documents.  Cases like this make a stronger case for wider use of E Verify and some type of bio id.

By the way, you will be interested to know that these guys were turned over to immigration authorities, where they were fingerprinted, photographed given a court date and released supposedly to go on to work on the project where they were headed in the first place.