Amid Oil Crisis, ICE Agents Search for Undocumented Cleanup Workers

"NEW ORLEANS --Federal immigration officials have been visiting command centers on the Gulf Coast to check the immigration status of response workers hired by BP and its contractors to clean up the immense oil spill.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Louisiana confirmed that its agents had visited two large command centers--which are staging areas for the response efforts and are sealed off to the public--to verify that the workers there were legal residents.

'We visited just to ensure that people who are legally here can compete for those jobs--those people who are having so many problems,' said Temple H. Black, a spokesman for ICE in Louisiana."

Annie Correal reports for Feet In Two Worlds, in a report coproduced by El Diaro/La Prensa June 4, 2010, rebroadcast on PRI's TheWorld June 23, 2010.