Wednesday, October 31, 2007
LATINO ADVOCACY GROUP INVESTIGATES IMMIGRANT “DUMPING” BY U.S. EMPLOYERS
NOGALES, SON., MEXICO—Consejo de Latinos Unidos, a U.S.
not-for-profit organization and public charity which educates and
assists Latinos and others, and government officials of the Mexican
State of Sonora disclosed at a news conference today the launch of an
international investigative study focusing on immigrant “dumping” which
began on October 1st.
Immigrant “dumping” is the practice of U.S. employers and others who
simply deport illegal immigrants who were injured or killed on the job
or involved in an automobile accident as a means to avoid insurance and
compensation claims.
K.B. Forbes, Executive Director of the Consejo, said, “We have now
documented cases in which U.S. employers simply washed their hands after
an employee was injured or killed on the job. The employer treated the
illegal immigrant worse than a stray dog. This conduct is reprehensible
and deplorable and we are going to document and investigate each and
every case.”
The Consejo has set up toll-free hotlines in Mexico and the United
States and encourages immigrants and their relatives to call. All cases
will be treated confidentially and will be included in a report to be
issued in the summer of 2008 in Washington, D.C.
In September, the Consejo signed an International Agreement with the
Mexican State of Sonora’s International Immigrant Assistance Agency
known in Spanish as the “Dirección General de Atención a Migrantes
Internacionales,” which be co-hosted the news conference and whose
General Director, Enrique Flores Lopez, outlined some of the cases
uncovered in recent weeks.
In recent weeks, the Consejo donated humanitarian aid, including food
and water, to the Mexican relief agency, which helps immigrants that
have been deported back to Mexico from the U.S. The Consejo has
published ten investigative reports on hospital price gouging, religious
fraud, police abuse, and pharmaceutical deception, has helped spur at
least three U.S. Congressional investigations and hearings. Consejo’s
work against hospital fraud was profiled last year on CBS’ 60 Minutes.
Immigrants and their relatives are encouraged to call the Consejo in the
U.S. at
1-800-474-7576 or in Mexico at 01-800-823-6416.
