Illegal Sears Tower Workers Arrested
Fri May 23,10:30 AM ET  Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!



CHICAGO - Immigrants working illegally at Sears Tower have been arrested by federal authorities who said security concerns prompted the crackdown.

 

Immigration officials would not confirm the number of people arrested, their countries of origin or when the arrests were made. They said Thursday the arrests were necessary to protect the 110-story building from terrorism.


Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for the Chicago office of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said immigrants working illegally may be law abiding but are vulnerable to being blackmailed by terrorists.


Critics said the arrests do nothing to make the building or Chicago safer.


"This is really an outrageous abuse of national security rhetoric to scapegoat people who are doing nothing but working in restaurants," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for the Immigrant and Refugee Rights.


Sears Tower spokesman Mark Spencer said the immigrants worked for tenants of the building, not for the building itself.

"This is really an outrageous abuse of national security rhetoric to scapegoat people who are doing nothing but working in restaurants," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for the Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Quoted:
Paul Harvey said this morning that those illegals who died in the trailer in south Texas...their survivors are suing the US government for letting it happen.

Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for the Chicago office of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said [b]immigrants working illegally may be law abiding[/b] but are vulnerable to being blackmailed by terrorists.