By Aaron Nicodemus
Standard-Times staff writer
August 11, 2007 6:00 AM
NEW BEDFORD — The Department of Homeland Security announced a series of measures Friday intended to crack down on illegal immigration, from increased workplace raids to hiking fines of employers who knowingly hire illegal workers.
But the Bush administration's announcement is not news to immigration attorney Frederick Watt. He has noticed a marked increase in undocumented immigrants being arrested in normal traffic stops in Providence, Brockton and Stoughton.
"I used to get a couple of calls a week from undocumented workers with no criminal history, being arrested," he said. "Now I get a dozen or more. You never used to see that unless there was some other serious criminal issue."
That trend has also been reflected at the Bristol County House of Corrections in Dartmouth, where a 126-bed facility for illegal immigrants has been filled since it opened in April. Plans are under way to build a mirror-image facility right beside the first one.
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson said criticizing the government for enforcing the country's laws doesn't make much sense to him.
"Congress has got to grapple with this issue. While they figure it out, DHS has got to enforce the laws," he said. The current immigration system, in which millions of illegal workers flood to the U.S. with the understanding that the system will not punish them, is a big part of the problem, he said.
"I blame this country for allowing the wink and the nod, and looking the other way, so that now it's so far out of control," he said. "Those people came here with the understanding that they could do this, and now they're being told that's not the case anymore."
This is good news as long as they follow up and get the people the hell out of here.
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