Posted on 05/28/2006 5:05:10 AM PDT by John Jorsett
SALEM, Ore. — The debate over immigration, which has filtered into almost every corner of American life in recent months, is now sweeping through the woods, and the implications could be immense for the coming fire season in the West.
As many as half of the roughly 5,000 private firefighters based in the Pacific Northwest and contracted by state and federal governments to fight forest fires are immigrants, mostly from Mexico. And an untold number of them are working here illegally.
A recent report by the inspector general for the United States Forest Service said illegal immigrants had been fighting fires for several years. The Forest Service said in response that it would work with immigration and customs enforcement officers and the Social Security Administration to improve the process of identifying violators.
At the same time, the State of Oregon, which administers private fire contracts for the Forest Service, imposed tougher rules on companies that employ firefighters, including a requirement that firefighting crew leaders have a working command of English and a formal business location where crew members can assemble.
Some Hispanic contractors say the state and federal changes could cause many immigrants, even those here legally, to stay away from the jobs. Other forestry workers say firefighting jobs may simply be too important — and too hard to fill — to allow for a crackdown on illegal workers.
"I don't think it's in anybody's interest, including the Forest Service, to enforce immigration — they're benefiting from it," said Blanca Escobeda, owner of 3B's Forestry in Medford, Ore., which fields two 20-person fire crews. Ms. Escobeda said all of her workers were legal.
Some fire company owners estimate that 10 percent of the firefighting crews are illegal immigrants; government officials will not even hazard a guess.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
'Migration' (the euphemism of choice), it's a good thing.
Fox is already touting 'victory'.
Who fought these fires before the immigrant came here/
How come they hire the immigrants/
Probably the simple answer is they paid more before the immigrants and the immigrants are easy to find and cheap to pay.
After the illegals are gone, Americans will fight the fires.
There will be no admissions from the feds but neither will there be a willingness to regulate immigration. Bush and his predecessors will hamper and delay implementation of any actions taken by the congress, state and local governments.
BTW, it is against federal regulation for the federal government to hire illegals.
And you will be first in line on Tuesday morning putting your application in to make sure fires on American land are put out by people named Joe and not Jose, correct.
As each day passes, I learn more about what's really been going on in our country. What interests me is how long, and to what degree Congress has known of these countless violations of our laws.
It's like waking up TO a bad dream..not from one.
Yep let's give corrupt govt. unions even more influence, that's the ticket.
It's like waking up TO a bad dream..not from one
A guy named Jose helping put out a fire is a nightmare?
JMO, the nightmare, IMO, is people like you, where the more important thing to you than putting out a fire that can cause physical harm, is the person's surname putting out that fire.
You would think! These are not only govt jobs and union jobs, but very important work. And they are just letting anyone be hired to do it. They can't tell me firefighting is a job "Americans won't do". Cuz that is just bull.
Hey put your application in on tuesday morning. Sounds like a job you want to "do".
How does a person's surname have anything to do with this?
Uh ask the people on this thread who are mad that people named Jose who are putting out fires.
I can't find the report on the web. I'd like to read it for myself. If anyone locates it, would you ping me?
Trust but verify :)
Uh, you are the only one that has mentioned the name Jose.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.