A few weeks ago the cops stopped a couple of guys on the
interstate and it turns out they are illegals and they are working on the
high school project.  As a board member I'm not amused. Bet the contractor didn't tell you his low price was predicated on bringing in a load of Messicans to freeze their asses off to do the work, did he?  Then again, it's illegal for him to ASK if they're here legally or not, and all he can ask for is a green card and a SSN, with no way of verifying whether any of it is legit. Then again again, the higher bidders probably woulda done the same.  We seem to have a lot of Pakistani masons in NY these days, and Ken and I worked on a job where some Chinese (I think) contractor had a bunch of Iraqi (or other Arab) laborers who all disappeared after 9/11, exciting considerable interest from the FBI, but all seemed to have been innocent.   I guess they had all their papers in order, just fake papers. I don't really blame these guys, having glimpsed into Mexico once, I can see why they would want to
come here to work. You're damn right.  Besides which, they're willing to come here and do shit work for low wages that Americans like us (except for Pyrate and ][<en) think we're too good for. Whatever happened to "Give me your tired, hungry, etc anyway? Speaking in my capacity as the child of a man who came here as a refugee, you're absolutely right, 100% on target, about that.  Ruth Ralph