Bummer: Immigration Agents Arrested Illegals Replacing A Roof

The NY Times is Very Concerned

Her Roof Was About to Be Fixed. Then Immigration Agents Showed Up.

After Hurricane Francine damaged Althea Vallotton’s house in suburban New Orleans last year, puddles formed on her floors whenever it rained. But she saved up money and lived in a mobile home on her front lawn for months, until she finally obtained a loan to pay for a stronger, metallic covering.

The cost? About $49,000.

On Wednesday, several workers — hired by a “legitimate contractor,” she said — arrived around 7 a.m. and got to work on the roof. She, in turn, drove to her job at a nearby school, relieved that her home repair odyssey was ending. It was a one-day job, after all.

Then her phone buzzed. Friends and relatives were asking if she had seen the videos online of federal immigration agents in Kenner, La., ordering the roof repairers to get down. Some sent screenshots of a masked agent pointing a weapon at the workers.

They were at her house.

Ms. Vallotton was stunned. She found the principal. “I got to go now — ICE is at my house,” she told her.

By the time Ms. Vallotton got home, the action was over, but she pieced together what had happened: The largely Hispanic construction crew on her roof had become the latest target of a federal immigration crackdown that had arrived in New Orleans that morning.

Sniffles. Anyhow, perhaps she should have gone with a company that was not using workers ineligible and illegally working in the United States. Not necessarily her fault, it’s hard to know when you deal with a top end person doing the paperwork and setting things up. Regardless, the people running the roofing company should be arrested for hiring illegals. In fact, it would be better if federal law enforcement prioritized going after companies that hire and use illegal aliens and throwing the book at them, which would cause most to stop hiring them, which would cause a lot of illegals to self deport as there is no work.

(BBC News) It is day one of “Catahoula Crunch”, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has labelled its operation, taking its name from an American leopard dog known for being well-muscled, powerful and territorial.

“These people came to work today to provide for their families and themselves,” said Zoe Higgins, an activist documenting the Border Patrol operation in New Orleans.

“That they could just be abducted, removed from all stability – I can’t imagine how terrifying that is,” she said, shortly after the agents coaxed the men down and detained them.

Are legal U.S. citizens “abducted” when the police arrest them violating the law?

Meanwhile,

A civil violation like speeding is still a crime. The law says so. And there are penalties. This includes those who overstayed their visas.