PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Bay County, Fla., sheriff's deputies arrested more than a dozen people Wednesday in a sweep at Panama City Marina, a staging area for contracted workers loading oil boom on boats, according to media reports. Most, if not all, of the people arrested were believed to be illegal aliens, the Northwest Florida Daily News newspaper reported.
Sheriff Frank McKeithen told the Daily News that the arrests came after he received several phone calls reporting illegal aliens at work. "I would hope there'd be enough people locally to work and do the same thing people from out of state are doing," McKeithen said of the workers.
A BP PLC spokeswoman said in a WJHJ TV report that the company immediately reacted to the situation and will cooperate with authorities. The company has said it wants to hire as many local residents as possible to help in cleanup operations from the oil spill from BP's Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico.
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/illegal_aliens_helping_with_oi.html