Michelle Malkin » Who’s building our bridges?

Who’s building our bridges?

By Michelle Malkin • August 7, 2007 09:37 AM

Yup, you guessed it (via the Sun Herald):

The owner of Tarrasco Steel, a company that supplied workers on the Biloxi Bay Bridge, was arrested and charged with hiring illegal immigrants on projects in three states. Some had improper welding certification.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Jose S. Gonzalez, 32, at his office in Greenville Thursday, according to a news release. Tarrasco Steel was hired as a subcontractor for rebar installation services to major bridge projects in Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee. The federal government considers those bridges as critical infrastructure, and they were part of routine inspections of facilities that if damaged could pose a threat to national security and public safety.

“There is a serious public safety concern when illegal aliens, who are not authorized to work in the country legally, and who do not possess valid welding certifications, are employed in the construction of bridges in our communities,” said Michael A. Holt, special agent in charge of the Customs Office of Investigations in New Orleans, in a news release.

On inspections of several construction sites March 29, representatives of several federal agencies confirmed the majority of Tarrasco Steel employees were using bogus Social Security numbers, and 77 immigrants were arrested. Twenty-six of them worked for Tarrasco Steel. Some of them worked on the Biloxi bridge, the Huey P. Long bridge in New Orleans, and a project on Interstate 40 in Memphis, among others, the news release said.

Lonewacko weighs in:

[B]oth the GOP and the Democrats have consistently looked the other way on the hiring of illegal aliens, setting the stage for cases like this. There are probably many similar cases that will never be discovered or prosecuted, until it’s too late.

Three cheers for bipartisan, open-borders endangerment.

Posted in: Employer Sanctions

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#113914

On August 7th, 2007 at 8:01 pm, ajmontana said:

One last tidbit and I’m going to settle in to the Factor then an Angel game.

With all the Postings from all of us today I just hope Michelle doesn’t get fed up completely and take “Comments” out entirely from her Site… Have a great evening all (yes even you MB) and I am out…
#113934

On August 7th, 2007 at 9:16 pm, Mr_Conservative_Cat said:

Rick,

It seems you’re view about Mike B is going against the grain of the board.

I see….

“I would also like you to go over some of your other posts and see how tolerant I have been of YOU. Perhaps you should not be so quick to urge banning when your own behavior has been less than stellar.”

The only thing I can think of Rick is that I dared to disagree with you on the issue of Democrat Presidential candidates being called on refusing to debate on Fox News. Please quote me elsewhere and demonstrate to me and the rest of the board how I have so taxed you, at least in relation to Mike B, (addendum: or anything else for that matter). I recall my tough talk to you being in response to you being a bit uncivil first – certainly sarcastic in a way that was uncalled for. Check the threads or please prove me wrong. That seems like a fair request.

“But if I had banned him last night, people could have said it was because he insulted ME – which while against the rules, I grant him a little leeway because I regularly insult HIM”

I see, and you’re talking to me about stellar behavior. I think that most people would agree that any board would be ever-so-much better without any insults at all? I find this “it’s okay for him to insult me because I insult him” talk from a moderator on what is supposed to be an intelligent message board for adults surprising. Especially since he’s also repeatedly insulting Michelle. Are you sure you aren’t working for the other side? As conservatives we should indeed put on a good face. However, I don’t call responding to harsh retorts or insults to the host in kind the sort of thing demanding of a polite response unless we want to continue the left wing perception that conservatives are too gentlemanly to fight back.

“The only reason your not banned is because I chalk up what you said to being rightly upset at the double standard involved.”

Well, thank God there’s an acknowledgement of a double standard. The question is, and I’ll bet others would like to know this: with that same double standard everywhere conservatives turn, why continue that unholy tradition here? It’s not a rhetorical question: what purpose does it serve?
#114551

On August 9th, 2007 at 2:21 am, Mr_Conservative_Cat said:

No petty intent here, and all due respect all around, but for the sake of continuity for anyone reading this thread in the future, Mike B was banned by the host the following day, and rightfully so.

A proper lesson learned the hard way: conservatives may be tolerant, but we’re not chumps.
#122775

On August 31st, 2007 at 11:51 pm, jimbo2 said:

Some of them worked on the Biloxi bridge, the Huey P. Long bridge in New Orleans, and a project on Interstate 40 in Memphis, among others, the news release said.

It would really be nice to know that, when I drive on a Mississippi River Bridge, I can be sure that it has been built by people who know what they are doing (i.e. certified). Those bridges are VERY TALL. It’s quite a long way down to ground level should the bridge collapse.

The only way to have any control over whether or not the bridge builders know what they are doing is to employ only those allowed to be here. In this way, all of the legal protections are “up and running”. Otherwise, everything is “under the table”, including whether or not the workers are certified.