SSDD
Posted on 08/06/2007 3:30:50 PM PDT by SeafoodGumbo
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.
"There is a serious public safety concern when illegal aliens, who are not authorized to work in the country legally, and who do not possess valid welding certifications, are employed in the construction of bridges in our communities," said Michael A. Holt, special agent in charge of the Customs Office of Investigations in New Orleans, in a news release.
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.
In April, nine Tarrasco employees caught in the March 29 operations were charged with fraudulent use of immigration documents and Social Security account numbers. Investigators served a search warrant at the Tarrasco office in Greenville and they got copies of payroll records. They allege Gonzalez falsified information on the I-9 Employee Eligibility forms. Investigators learned that several workers had inappropriate welding certifications.
Several South Mississippi law enforcement agencies participated in the investigation, including the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Biloxi Police Department.
Gonzalez was indicted on July 29 and $457,368 has been seized from Tarrasco accounts, the news release said.
This would no doubt be a wide spread practice if the government would look into it....but they are only doing the work Americans dont want...
Jorge Arbusto is deeply saddened.
You have to come up with minority subs from somewhere to fullful the set-aside/quota/’goal’ if you want the contract.
Glad they caught these guys, but...
You don't need a welding certificate to install rebar. There is usually no welding involved. Also very easy to tell if the work was done properly.
Finally, want to bet the states involved promoted this firm to get minority procurement credits?
Reaping what we sow.
Note to self: Stay the hell off Biloxi Bay Bridge.........
Another government lie. It looks like the illegals are doing the jobs that Americans would do and better.
It really makes me angry when our government lies to us about illegals being underpaid. I just read about an illegal here doing sheet rock for money than I earn. I am not sure if he is paying taxes; however he is receiving benefits.
What is going through GW’s mind that he would take jobs, money, food and shelter away from real Americans. People that voted for him?
If the Biloxi Bay Bridge is Hwy 90, its not even close to
being done. I just got back from vacation and had to go
around up to I-10 and then back down the next exit west.
HA HA HA, long story, had to tell it.....LOL
Mississippi Ping,,,,,,,,
Good! That’s the way we go anyway!.......
I have to drive over the Huey P. Long bridge sometimes. I’ll be thinking about this the next time I’m on there.
Who was doing the repairs on the collapsed bridge in Minneapolis?
There are certain locales where you do need a welding cert to install re-bar. In Kalifornia, on bridge work, it gets all messed up but I had one contract where we did have to have certs on the welders - never could find out who actually required it, but it cost the taxpayers extra.
BTTT!
There are a huge number of different welding certificates and most are hard to get since the welding is difficult. It is one thing to hire welders with proper certification and another to hire uncertified welders who might have excellent welding skills. Big problem for the construction company since it involves bonding and that is big money.
Williams Bros in Houston has hired illegals in Houston forever.
1979 was the gateway year.
Drive in Houston and you will see what I mean.
When the Harris County courthouse being built,
it was raided by La Migra in 97.
The concrete sub lost over 50% of their workforce.
25% of those were back to work within two weeks.
I can understand this guy being prosecuted. He has the right to his day in court. However, on what basis can "our" government just go in and seize nearly 1/2 a mil out of a company's bank account? Its not like he's been proven guilty yet in a court of law. These "government seizures" seem to be getting out of hand in my mind.
Why would anyone be remotely surprised by this? The fact that they are is amazing. Facts are out there if one chooses to avail themselves of them.
Otherwise don’t gripe and just live with the wave of the future.
That happened out here in the early ‘80’s. The Washington Public Power Supply System was going balls to the walls on constructing nuclear power plants. (http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5482)
Several West Coast companies the biggest being Familian, was caught doing the exact same thing faking certs on imported steel, pipe and valves and altering the look of the material to resemble domestic material. A couple of V.P.’s of Familian served time.
A small shop in Seattle Tsubota Steel & Pipe was caught painting, restamping product sold to the WPPSS contract buyers imported product Tsubota’s V.P. deemed having equivalent qualities as domestic steel and valves costing two thirds more. Tsubota would provide samples of material ordered by WPPSS to independent testing labs for certification and substitute the delivered order with counterfeit material. This was CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL FOR NUCLEAR REACTORS.
It was a widespread problem. Every other supplier in the area had either done something similar or had been asked to by a WPPSS contract buyer. People went to jail, long time companies failed, WPPSS became the largest muni-bond default in American history and nuclear power never became a reality in the Pacific Northwest. We actually had a female nuclear scientist as Governor at the time who would have been remembered as a visionary had the nuke plants came on line. However, she was a democrat and like anything else socialist government does, it quickly achieved FUBAR status.
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