dl425's Blog

Some might say it was a picture of irony when two dozen suspected undocumented workers - some builders, some painters - went to jail after officials with ICE say they worked on a jail illegally.

"You might say it was somewhat of an embarrassment for the county to arrest people that were working for the county," said Tom Leonardo of the Fort Myers City Council.

That's why the City of Fort Myers wants its contracted workers to dig into their employees' histories.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act which criminalizes employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers.

Immigration lawyer David Mourick says workers who are in Southwest Florida illegally often trick employers. They simply fake it.

Mourick: If they've got a social security number, why would you question anything else? Why should you have to?
NBC2: So if the paperwork seems credible, a lot of employers just let it go?
Mourick: Yes, and to be quite honest, a lot of them don't really want to look that closely at it.

Certain subcontractors for the Lee County Jail project say they did look closely when they hired these workers. Now, the City of Fort Myers urges the same for those behind efforts like street scape.

When it comes to the major projects, the last thing city leaders want to do is play police. They say that's what the federal government is for when it comes to undocumented workers.

Instead, what they want to do is put a lot more pressure on subcontractors when it comes to doing the background checks.

"It's not something that we ought to try to be enforcing," said Leonardo. "If we take a moral position on city council, it sends a message to the development community."

And Monday night, the Fort Myers City Council decided it can only do so much to keep illegal workers off the payroll. Members say they will leave it up to the feds to protect our borders.