Danger in the Forest

The Sacramento Bee reported yesterday on the plight of workers laboring for Forest Service contractors to maintain national forests in the West. Many of the employees are undocumented migrants. Injuries they suffer on the job often go unreported, and safety inspections are few and far between. The Forest Service's response? An exercise in buck-passing. Here's agency spokesman Matt Matthes:

We're the Forest Service. We're not the INS or the Department of Labor.

(By the way, Mr. Matthes, the INS isn't the INS any more, either. It's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)