Marietta Daily Journal

‘Had enough’
by Katy Ruth Camp and Brandon Wilson
krcamp@mdjonline.co; bwilson@mdjonline.co
July 14, 2010

Everyone working on the new $63 million Cobb courthouse being built near the Square will be subjected to fresh background checks by the Sheriff’s Office, as the county is assuming control of security and trying to ensure that no illegal immigrants step foot on the jobsite, county officials announced Tuesday.

“Cobb County has had enough of any perception of illegals working on projects,” Commissioner Bob Ott said. “We need to make sure we are comfortable in saying we only have legal workers working on projects.”

After the Board of Commissioners’ Tuesday morning meeting, where members from workers group Jobs for Georgians again stated concerns that illegal immigrants continue to work on the courthouse, commissioners asked County Manager David Hankerson to meet with the sheriff and other stakeholders to address the issue. At 3:30 p.m., Hankerson met with Sheriff Neil Warren, his deputies and representatives from general contractor Turner Construction Company. Commissioners were not present, Ott said.

“What was decided on is the county is assuming control of security and legitimacy of all those working on the site,” Ott said. “Because of the sheriff’s extensive training with ICE and 287(g), he is the best to enforce the law. We are taking full responsibility to make sure people are eligible to work in Cobb.”

Previously, the county and Turner Construction implemented a photo identification system for each individual that enters the worksite. The IDs were cross-referenced with the federal citizenship authorization program E-verify to identify work status, said Allen Kronenberger, project manager for the county’s property management department. Those employees then got ID badges and were subjected to site checks each day by Turner personnel, Kronenberger told commissioners in an e-mail.

Now, each worker will go through a more extensive background check by the Sheriff’s Office and get a new badge, Ott said. There will also be spot checks performed by sheriff deputies, he said.

“It’s a big undertaking, but it lets citizens know that the county is making sure that workers are legal,” Ott said. “…One of the big things to point out, not one ethnic group is being singled out. Every new contractor, worker (will be subjected to the new measures). The reality is, they would have to check me if I were to try to work there.”

Sheriff Warren said, “We have a responsibility to the public, the judicial system and the citizens of Cobb County to make sure this site is both safe and secure.”

According to the Sheriff’s Office, the new measures will be phased in beginning this week.

Hankerson said, “Our Board of Commissioners have listened to the public and made this issue a high priority.”

The courthouse is expected to be completed by December.

“At first, the commissioners wanted to have a sheriff’s deputy at a gate where everyone would have to come through, but as construction occurs 16 hours a day with three points of access on the site and 300 workers on and off the site a day, it just was not going to be feasible,” county spokesman Robert Quigley said.

Ott said the new measures stem from concerns from residents and groups such as Jobs for Georgians “to really tighten up security on the site.”

Members of the watchdog group Jobs for Georgians went before the Board of Commissioners in early February and presented claims that Zebra Construction, the masonry subcontractor on the courthouse project, hired illegal immigrants.

During the Jobs for Georgians’ undercover investigation, José Alvarez said he visited the site from November until January, posing as a bricklayer. Alvarez said he befriended many of the Zebra workers and has a recorded conversation with a blocklayer that proves workers were being paid in cash, were not checked under E-verify, and were not paying income or Social Security taxes.

Chip Kessler, president of Suwanee-based Zebra, earlier said the contractor hired by his company to manage the blocklayers, Victor Candelaria, was pulled from the project Feb. 5, when they learned he was not enrolled in E-verify.

Alvarez estimated that 14 workers employed by the subcontractor were illegal immigrants.

Rich Pellegrino, director of immigrant advocacy group Cobb Immigrant Alliance, said the sheriff is “overstepping” the 287(g) agreement, which Cobb has with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency to check the immigration status of everyone booked into the county jail.

Pellegrino said Warren will be using the agreement to do the new background checks and, “He’s only allowed to use it in the prison … Really, what they are trying to do is mimic Arizona and see how far they can go here.”

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal – Had enough