Bridge builder charged with hiring illegal aliens, some with invalid welding certification

Posted Mon, Aug 6, 2007 at 5:52 pm
This story helps show how much our entire political system has been affected by corruption:
The owner of Tarrasco Steel, a company that supplied workers on the Biloxi Bay Bridge, was arrested and charged with hiring illegal immigrants on projects in three states. Some had improper welding certification.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Jose S. Gonzalez, 32, at his office in Greenville Thursday, according to a news release. Tarrasco Steel was hired as a subcontractor for rebar installation services to major bridge projects in Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee. The federal government considers those bridges as critical infrastructure, and they were part of routine inspections of facilities that if damaged could pose a threat to national security and public safety.

...On inspections of several construction sites March 29, representatives of several federal agencies confirmed the majority of Tarrasco Steel employees were using bogus Social Security numbers, and 77 immigrants were arrested. Twenty-six of them worked for Tarrasco Steel. Some of them worked on the Biloxi bridge, the Huey P. Long bridge in New Orleans, and a project on Interstate 40 in Memphis, among others, the news release said...
It's pretty ironic that Huey Long is involved, if only by name; recall the collapsing staircase from this.

As for political corruption, both the GOP and the Democrats have consistently looked the other way on the hiring of illegal aliens, setting the stage for cases like this. There are probably many similar cases that will never be discovered or prosecuted, until it's too late.

Comments

CalifChris (not verified)

Tue, 08/07/2007 - 08:31

This is probably why they said the investigation on the collapsed bridge on 1-35 in Minnesota "may take years" because with the anger over the amnesty bill and the guestworker program this Senate tried to shove down our throats last month, the last thing the American public needs to hear is that the bridge that collapsed and probably half the bridges repaired in the last 10 years used a work force of illegal aliens who weren't even properly licensed for welding work. When you used unskilled, untrained third world labor, you get third world work results. I think this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding the use of unskilled and untrained illegals aliens on major and crucial infrastructure work throughout this country. Bush has let his unfair and anti-American worker free trade agenda take priority over all else. The corporations' insistence that this President neither enforce our immigration laws nor secure our borders so that they can reap the profits$$$ of illegal immigrant cheap labor has been given priority over the safety, security, and best interests of the American people. American interest, not corporate interest, should be what is of utmost importance to this President but never has been from day one.

RSG (not verified)

Tue, 08/07/2007 - 12:35

These are Jorge "Open Borders" Bush's hard working people! We need to celebrate them, all learn Spanish to better accomodate them and generally welcome tens of millions more from south of the border because we're all racists for wanting to keep the sovereignty of our nation. Fergit 'bout it, the nation of the USA is all but over. We can't engineer and manufacture much of anything anymore, we import millions of foriegners to take jobs here while we outsource other jobs to Asia. Fergit 'bout it.

Patricia (not verified)

Tue, 08/07/2007 - 20:09

The third-worldization of the former US continues apace. Bribery, corruption, shoddy workmanship, callous disregard for citizens...what, or who, is next?

Fred Dawes (not verified)

Tue, 08/07/2007 - 21:42

I like CalifChris may we read more, the system is coming apart, someone need to go to prison.

mary (not verified)

Wed, 08/08/2007 - 03:55

We really need to STOP educating our own children so that these poor, new Illegal immigrants won't feel left out! Let's level the playing field.....EVERYONE RUN do NOT WALK to your nearest hospital emergency room for that nagging headache, hangnail and skin rash.....yup, if you can't beat em join em!!! I suggest Arlen Specter be made to wait in a long Hispanic line next time he rushes to the hospital emergency room...Maybe then he will get the message???

D Flinchum (not verified)

Wed, 08/08/2007 - 09:27

According to August 13 Business Week, "a building inspection service active in 35 states found that from 2003 to 2006 the number of new homes with 'significant problems' rose more than 13% A public fund in Nevada created to settle builder complaints paid claims of nearly $1.2 million in 2006, up from $234,000 in 2003" A bit later in the article, a property casualty actuary says this is just the beginning - it will take 5-7 to see the big picture. The chickens are coming home to roost. Construction is a skilled trade and you don't get skilled workers in front of a 7-11.

Smitty (not verified)

Wed, 08/08/2007 - 22:43

I bet all those projects were really phat prevailing wage jobs too, somehow I don't think the illegals got prevaling wages, why would anybody hire illegals & pay prevailing wages when you can hire skilled Americans for the same pay? Generally speaking skilled labor works faster too-unless they were cutting corners, how do they read plans written in English? What about the engineering notes?