And in a related note

Raid rumors send local immigrants into a panic

The panic that sent hundreds of illegal immigrants fleeing from their homes, jobs and schools in recent weeks may have been set into motion on March 23, when a developer and contractor surveyed their sprawling construction site from a white helicopter with green stripes -- the same colors as U.S. Border Patrol helicopters.

Workers at the Shadow Creek Ranch subdivision in Pearland shouted that the helicopter belonged to la migra, short for immigration agents. Countless workers dropped their tools, abandoned their taco stands and vanished.

You mean that most of the construction crew were illegal aliens? So why weren't they being picked up?

Fueled by Spanish-language media and the tenuous existence of thousands of immigrants, los rumores have been so persistent that immigration activists and construction contractors were convinced federal officials had been conducting random raids on work sites from Pasadena to Tomball -- a tactic not practiced here in years.

Federal officials insist there have been no recent raids in the Houston area.

"The rumors are false," said Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Dallas.

One question, why are they false?

The immigration service, now known as ICE, no longer does general workplace raids.

"It has been proven that just going after illegal immigrants is inefficient," Cravener said. "It's better to do an investigation and then go after the employer or the smuggler."

The last workplace enforcement action in Houston happened in October as part of a national investigation of janitorial subcontractors at Wal-Mart stores. Only a few workers in Houston were detained.

Sounds like it would be more effective to drop by the Shadow Creek Ranch subdivision and arrest every contractor.

And why is the enforcement so inept? Here's an answer. On a side bar to the article we find:

MEETING MONDAY NIGHT
U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, and the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans will host a town hall meeting on the immigration raid rumors at 6:30 p.m. Monday at AAMA's Multipurpose Education Center, 6001 Gulf Freeway.

Sounds like a target rich environment.