Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Los Illegales Caught at Dulles Airport (Again)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that they arrested 42 illegal aliens working at Dulles International Airport. From the press release:

WASHINGTON - This morning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 42 men illegally present in the country at Dulles International Airport as part of a critical infrastructure protection (CIP) operation. ICE agents, with support of airport security agencies, arrested the illegal aliens just inside the airport grounds at a checkpoint established to verify the identity and immigration status of workers entering a service gate.

It's not the first time. Back in 2006, ICE arrested 55 illegals working at Dulles (see the WAPO story), some of whom were working in high-security areas.

Local TV news is reporting that most of the arrestees were from Bolivia. If so, that tracks perfectly with my experience teaching English as a Second Language classes at night in Fairfax county, Virginia, where about half of my students for the last few years have been Bolivian, and about 90% of the male students are working construction jobs. [Note: I believe all illegal aliens should be deported, however, while they're here, I don't mind helping them learn English, at least not those who are so highly motivated to learn that they'll devote two nights a week to go to ESL class when they could be home chugging down cerveza.]

This latest ICE raid follows the arrest of 18 illegal aliens inside Quantico Marine Corps Base in January of 2007, and the arrest of fifty more illegals working on the construction of a federal courthouse in Richmond in May of this year, which makes me wonder whether construction contractors on federally-funded projects might be prime employers of illegal aliens.

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