I knew L.A. was lost once the Bimbo trucks were sighted around town.
Posted on 04/04/2006 10:22:23 AM PDT by BurbankKarl
As the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina receded in September, roads filled with residents leaving the city, their cars, SUVs and moving vans jammed with what they had salvaged of their lives.
But another mass movement was taking place on the other sides of the highways.
Thousands of men from Mexico and Central America were driving into the city. Word had spread throughout the Latino immigrant diaspora in America that the city had plenty of work, construction wages had doubled to $16 an hour and no one was asking for papers.
"It was like a Gold Rush," said Oscar Calanche, a Guatemalan immigrant who lived in New Orleans before the storm and returned as soon as the waters receded. "In one car there'd be three up front and three or four in the back, with suitcases and tools on top. It looked like a river of people from our countries."
Latino workers have gutted, roofed and painted houses and hauled away garbage, debris and downed trees. Undocumented workers have installed trailers to house returning evacuees at New Orleans City Park, their pay coming from FEMA subcontractors.
"It's all illegals doing this work," said Rey Mendez, a FEMA trailer subcontractor from Honduras.
No one knows how many Latino immigrants are here, but John Logan, a Brown University demographer who has studied the city since Katrina, says "there must be 10,000 to 20,000 immigrant workers in the region by now, and the number is going to grow."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Just how in the h!ll are they getting up here?
I knew L.A. was lost once the Bimbo trucks were sighted around town.
Oh yeah, where was that new immigrant part of any city that was low in crime and a joy to walk thru? Can't think of any?
Don't get me wrong, immigration policy in this fountry would be 3ucked up, if it even existed. The key is in taking multiculturalism for a long dirt nap.
Now that's false advertising.
Yeah, should say "Mamacita"
What the heck is AM PDT?
well, police chief on this morning and that is who they are arresting, illegals, from where whose knows and do you know how long it takes to put them on a plane back to whereever they come from, unreal, we do not need this here now, this is insult after injury.
Illegal immigrants are mostly hard working people looking for opportunities and I would not deny them that. They do the jobs Americans WILL NOT do.
I don't believe that crime is up due to the influx of illegals; in fact, I'd be surprised if it were not down substantially since the hurricane, even allowing for the reduced population.
But Ray Nagin will never let THAT little statistic escape his po-leece department...
I'm going way out on a limb here, but my guess would be "Before Noon (Ante Meridian) Pacific Daylight Time"
after midnight, pacific dalight(savings) time, I think.
This article is about construction work.
These people will never work on a regular basis, no matter how much you pay them. After they collect their first or second paycheck, they stop showing up at work.
This problem is intractable, but we cannot talk about it without being called a racist or a bigot.
Nice paycheck. Were taxes deducted?
Sounds like an excellent reason to get rid of welfare.
I hate amnesty, but this is a situation where, if no Americans are heading down there to work, we'd need a guest worker program to rebuild the area.
Let's face it- part of the illegal immigration problem is our government. But another part is that the American people have gotten too darn lazy.
I dunno... I should be working... but I'm here posting on FR :)~
Same thing happened in 2004 with Hurricane Ivan in Pensacola area. Many Mexican workers came LEGALLY and helped rebuild the area. Those guys worked like dogs 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. Would still be a disaster area if they hadn't shown up.
Most local companies just wanted to reap huge profits by quadrupling their prices.
Would be nice. I don't think it will ever happen, but it should.
susie
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