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Group questions Benedetto’s motives
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Posted on May 27 2008
TaoTao Tano president Greg Cruz has questioned the motives of Labor Ombudsman Jim Benedetto after the federal official refused to turn over to the Department of Labor his office’s documents regarding the $6.1 million owed hundreds of alien workers.
Cruz said that since the beginning of the federal immigration control issue, “Mr. Benedetto had interfered with our local labor and immigration laws, duplicating labor complaint issues, participated in a Unity March alongside nonresident guest workers who are in fact his clients, harboring illegal aliens, [and] instigated or collaborated with foreign guest workers. …Today he is refusing to cooperate with our local labor authorities in providing a copy of the reported unpaid labor complaint cases unless his clients are given some type of assurance, such as immunity from deportation if they are found overstaying?”
Benedetto had said that he took the action because Labor could provide no assurance that the data would not be used against guest workers. He said he was willing to turn over the documents if he had assurances that the records would be used to go after the employers and bonding companies who owed the money, and not the workers.
“Labor was unwilling to give such assurances,” he said.
Cruz says he wants to know how many of the labor complaints were against local employers and if they are legitimate.
“We have reasons to believe that a majority of foreign owned business establishments that have closed shop have long gone, without any possibility of locating them for collections of uncollected labor awards,” Cruz said.
He added that neither the “government or federal wants to spend taxpayers monies sending labor or immigration enforcement agents to locate this [sic] employers.”
Cruz said: “We cannot just extend permanent residency or hand out green cards in order to correct this mess. Neither government can unilaterally extend such provisions without the consent of the other. It’s called ‘mutual consent.’”
