Posted on 10/03/2005 9:08:32 PM PDT by RightDemocrat
LAS CHEPAS, MEXICO – Mario Pérez, muscular and 16 years old, is a budding carpenter. Next to him is Samuel Sánchez, 32, an experienced roofer. Fed up with earning $4 a day in Mexico, they recently arrived at this tiny town on the Mexican-New Mexican border to start the two-day walk to the US. They talked about where they would go. "Probably Texas," said Mr. Sánchez. "What about New Orleans?" suggested Mr. Pérez In the wake of hurricane Katrina, recent moves by the US government may help would-be migrants like Sánchez and Pérez decide where to go. And decisions in Washington are reigniting the immigration debate.
At a time when Latino immigrants are expected to form a big part of the Gulf Coast reconstruction labor pool, the Department of Homeland Security has temporarily suspended sanctioning employers who hire workers unable to prove their citizenship, essentially allowing contractors to hire undocumented workers.
That move followed President Bush's Sept. 8 decision to lift in Katrina-hit areas the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, which requires federal contractors to pay at least the average regional wage. Bush says it will hasten one of the world's largest reconstruction efforts.
The post-Katrina changes are stirring the immigration debate, especially between the US and Mexico, which have been talking about the need for changes in immigration policy for years.
Bush recently pledged to address immigration reform more vigorously. His plan calls for a temporary-worker program that would allow illegal immigrants already in the US the chance to receive legal status.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Not only that, but this has been Bush's plan all along! De-black New Orleans and brown it with illegal immigrants from Mexico! /sarcasm
You have to admit that it might also translate to lower reconstruction costs... ;-)
It may also be a trap (but I doubt it).
Imagine what would happen if hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant construction workers uprooted all over the country and headed down to New Orleans, only to find that when the jobs were finished that vans and buses were waiting for them to take them home to Mexico. But I do doubt that's the case...
yeah, lower reconstruction costs...don't think so. increases in material costs will even out the Hurricane labor dividend with our southern hombre's. the ones left out of the mix, our local, home grown labor. guess they will have to take up telemarketing. whoops, sorry i forgot, that went to india. Maybe some gambling riverboats could use them to clean the paddlewheels.
Nah, Bush/Rove plan to get all the illegals in the "bowl" and then send another hurricane.
wonderful, open the floodgates.
Davis Bacon is a union sop anyhow.
Suspend it but verify citizenship.
He may avoid the snakes but he runs the risk of being eaten by Italians.
ping
The "prevailing wages" under Davis Bacon actually are set by government fiat. They are just a Department of Labor bureaucrat's notion of what prevailing union wages ought to be. They have no relation to real-life labor market conditions. It's just a pork-barrel handout to Big Labor.
In the aftermath of Katrina, there are not nearly enough union workers to do the cleanup and reconstruction. If Davis-Bacon were applied, it would take much longer and cost far more. Bush did the right thing.
Is it me, or does it seem that that press/MSM supports job grown as long as it is not U.S. citizens who get the new jobs?
The more I read about what Bush is doing, the more I think he is no friend to the popel of America. Combining the elimination of immigration law and the suspension of the prevailing wage law seems to be some wacked, wierd idea of immigration control. Rather than putting up a wall with Mexico and deporting illegals, Bush seems to be degrading the employment environment in the U.S. so illegals won't see advantage in coming to the U.S. He is removing their incentive by making employment in the U.S. like employment in Mexico!
Yes - Bush Jr. will leave the USA more like a third-world country than he found it.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
So, do you have proof that the cost savings are being passed back to the government? Or, aren't they just being pocketed by the contractors?
Bush doesn't seem to be doing much to keep NO's demographics as they were before. Rather, he seems to be doing what he has to to disperse the former residents and bring in new residents from Mexico.
Even Louis Farrakhan can be right occasionally.
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