It may seem as though the number of immigrants on the Gulf Coast has grown since Hurricane Katrina created a need for workers, but there is no hard evidence to determine the population of immigrants, documented or undocumented, says Temple Black, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“If we knew where the illegals were, we would go out and detain them,” Black says. Not only is ICE unable to document the number of immigrants in the states covered by the New Orleans office – Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee – the agency has no way of determining how many of those immigrants are employed in construction, Black says.