Sunday, June 01, 2003

What a shock!
The AP informs us that in Utah, Immigration chief says rousting undocumented immigrants not a priority:
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Utah's top immigration official says a newly created agency in the Department of Homeland Security won't focus on workplace roundups of undocumented immigrants.

Steve Branch, head of the state's office of the federal Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, said that his agency could go out every day and find illegal workers, but ''it's not our priority.''

Even if an employer is found to have workers with fraudulent documents, Branch said, a raid is not necessarily imminent.

''We're not going to go pick up those workers. We're not going to detain them or even put them in proceedings,'' Branch said during a Homeland Security outreach meeting Friday at the Salt Lake City main library.
I wonder how much the taxpayers are forced to cough up for Steve's "services"?

And a "outreach meeting"? Who was Steve reaching out to? Based on his comments, it seems to be illegal aliens.
Branch said that the immigration and customs bureau could never round up the estimated 75,000 illegal immigrants living in Utah. Yet he often hears allegations that his agents are plotting raids.
Yep that must be it, if he gets his panties in a knot over "allegations" that he is "plotting" to do his job.