Illegal aliens taking American jobs, working in unsafe conditions
Tags: illegal aliens, rebuildingWelcome to "compassionate" feudalism. From Immigrant workers risk danger for storm cash
At the day labor pickup spot by the Home Depot on Sydney Marcus Boulevard in Atlanta, workers leave for the Gulf Coast every few days as contractors stop and offer them jobs.
They'll eagerly take work cleaning out maggot-infested food from refrigerators in New Orleans hotel kitchens and gutting homes and businesses containing asbestos and toxic sludge.
The huge, multibillion-dollar cleanup task on the Gulf Coast is a magnet for immigrant workers, legal and illegal. Although some are happy with their jobs, others find that the conditions aren't what they had hoped. Many immigrants have fallen victim to unscrupulous contractors and thieving co-workers. They also fear disease and deportation.
But there are many willing to take the risk…
While federal officials have taken little notice of illegal immigrants working on the cleanup, sheriff's deputies entered a Red Cross shelter in Long Beach, Miss., last month and demanded identification from dozens of people who looked Hispanic, according to news reports. They were concerned that the shelter was being used to house out-of-town construction workers.
Actually, many of the 50 or so Mexican-American men in the shelter were residents of Pass Christian, Miss., who had lost everything in the storm, said Remedios Gomez Arnau, consul general of the Mexican Consulate in Atlanta. They had sought refuge in the shelter and had been recruited to do construction work too, she said. No one was deported.
Gary Warren, political director for the Louisiana Carpenters Regional Council, said many illegal immigrants are cleaning out sludge dust without proper protection.
"There are molds and funguses growing," Warren said. New Orleans was flooded with water that contained petroleum products, benzene, other chemicals and human waste. That left a sludge that dried and turned into dust.
"You have all of these particles that are going to be inhaled and are going to cause respiratory problems," Warren said. "They will manifest themselves later as allergies and asthma."
Warren said the Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Department of Homeland Security are "all kind of turning their heads" to the problem…
April 10th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
[…] But there are undocumented workers already here, and undocumented workers are underpaid and exploited workers. I hate the fact that "The System" turns a blind eye to some portion of illegals because, you know, we need those people to pick fruit and watch the kids. I hate the fact that the burden of law falls heavier on the workers than on the employers who exploit them. And breaking up families is unspeakably cruel. […]