, 1962-01-10
LEGISLATIVE RECORD ...
Continued from yesterday
Mr.. DE LUGO: Mr.. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Senator De Lugo.

PRESIDENT: Senator De Lugo.
MR. DE LUGO: Mr.. President, / would like to again
call the attention Of this Body to the situation regarding
alien workers, and | really do feel that we should do
something about it before the end OF this session. ! real
ize that we had a meeting here between the Legislature,
representatives Of the Employment Service, and the
Head Of the immigration and Naturalization Service,
here in the Virgin Islands. But don't think that that
melting was satisfactory to me or to any member OF
this Legislature, and / do not believe that we got the
kind Of cooperation from the man who heads up the I'm
migration and Naturalization Service here in St. Tho
mas that / would have liked. He told us. Mr.. Chairman,
that there was no immigration problem in the Virgin
Islands, or no aliens residing in the Virgin Islands illeg-
ally, and that everything was all well Idont agree with
that. / think a number OF things have got to be straight
ened out: and the sooner the better.
want to call your attention, Mr.. President, the fact
that you have aliens referred by the Employment Ser
vice as truck drivers. Now l don't believe that you have
to go outside the Virgin Islands to get truck drivers. In
ST. Croix, you have ten aliens as bus drivers. These men
are the ones you see racing up and down the road with
school children in those BUSES, and one of them was
warned by one Of the immigration Officers in ST, Crolx
that if he ever saw him driving like that again, he would
put him on the first plane out and send him back where
he came from.
Mr.. Chairman, you cannot tell me that we cannot
find bus drivers; you cannot tell me that we can't find
native bartenders. These are positions that the natives
can fill and / think that this Legislature, this group of
1uGu q ILLS ldOy Ill Il 1dVC ~ OOAOO CALoC1V ~
meeting with the employment service and finding out
whether or not the employment service is certifying
people too easily for positions. If the employment ser
vice in St. Croix is going to certify people as truck dri-
vers, | think there is something wrong. | will agree that
we do have a shortage OF laborers; that we do need do
mestic workers; that we do need masons and people in
the construction field. But | cannot go along with this
idea that was put forward by the Head of the Immigra-
ton and Naturalization Service who said that there is
no problem regarding aliens residing here illegally.
Mr.. Chairman, on the Island of st. Croix we have
only two immigration officers, and they are doing a
splendid job. Just the other day, one of the officers ar
rested two aliens who were on their way from St. Croix
He was looking for one of them for about six months, and
it just happened that he saw this mans name on the
Caribair Passenger List. He finally found them and ar
rested them and sent them both out. They were on their
way to st. Thomas. If they had gotten away to St. Tho
mas, they would have been two of the many problems
that the immigration Officer who is in charge here said
that we do not have. He said that all of them are resi-
dent aliens. Is that how thew become alien residents.