Associted Press
LOGAN, West Virginia -- Authorities plan to deport seven suspected illegal immigrants caught working on a hospital construction project, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The workers were taken into custody Tuesday at Logan Regional Medical Center, state and federal authorities said. Now they are awaiting deportation, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs said.
The men were working for a contractor hired to perform minor renovation work, according to the hospital.
The contractor, Nashville, Tenn.-based Batten & Shaw Inc., said a drywall firm hired for the job was responsible for verifying the men were working legally.
In turn, the subcontractor, Nashville-based Rocklyn-Thomas, said it thought the men were working legally.
"This all got started because people up there didn't want Mexicans in the area," Rocklyn-Thomas owner Rocky Sizemore said. "If not for immigrant workers, there would be no construction in this country."
Posted by tyne at July 14, 2007