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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 ...
It's possible that two people, one legal and one illegal, are sharing the same paycheck. The work gets done, the taxes get paid using one social security number, and the workers split the money.
I agree to a point. But, with legal workers, employers have sooooo much more regulation they have to put up with. It is cheaper to hire the illegals, for the obvious reasons, but if the govt would step back and let the market do what it does best, I think most businesses would gladly hire legal workers. The govt is what makes this a problem, starting at the border. I don't want to live in a socialist state. I want to live free, in the United States of America.
ping
Is substandard below what welfare pays for not working? Is substandard Davis-Bacon wages where any employer will pay when he gets subsidized by the Federal government but cannot pay otherwise? Who says any wage is substandard if people are willing to work for it. Isn't that the free market at work?
And?
Sounds like they've got that union mentality already. Looks like Dennis Prager was right. America will corrupt illegal immigrants far more than illegal immigrants will corrupt America.
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"there must be 10,000 to 20,000 immigrant workers in the region by now, and the number is going to grow."
Should be fairly easy to go in, round them up, and start the deportation process.
I also don't believe we should be paying to rebuild NO. If the people that live there want it rebuilt, they should be rebuilding it. If not, it's sinking anyway. It's foolish to waste money on the place.
How can hispanic foremen only hire hispanics? The responsibility for this goes to the top of the company. Someone is making a killing off illegals.
Not just your opinion, it's the hard truth. Our "leaders" seem to think that we need to import more and more poverty, as if we didn't have enough to start with.
I don't know the going rate of construction workers. However, you can bet that I would never pay one worker $13,000 a month to build a garage or pool.
I have a brother who lives in Mississippi who says that FEMA and the government have put out a lot of sweetheart deals. There are 4 or 5 contractors who got the contracts without having to bid for them. Cronies are better.
I don't know the going rate of construction workers. However, you can bet that I would never pay one worker $13,000 a month to build a garage or pool.
I have a brother who lives in Mississippi who says that FEMA and the government have put out a lot of sweetheart deals. There are 4 or 5 contractors who got the contracts without having to bid for them. Cronies are better.
Usually some governmental agency has been behind the work in NO til now be it city, state, county or federal. Not capitalism but more like socialism with taxpayer money.
Did you not ask that person who showed you his pay stub how much he was making a hour. Did you see any deductions such as FICA? Was this a 1099 and nothing withheld? It didn't strike you as strange that he was making that kind of money and the rest making a measly $13 - $16 an hour.
I am sorry, but to me something is fishy here.
If this was their plan from early on, it was marvelously carried out. Bush lifted the hiring rules for illegal aliens, then Harry Reid stepped in and supported the illegal aliens instead of the American citizens. Meanwhile, the media published a series of articles (available at the site above under the 'illegal aliens' tag) highlighting how wonderful it was that New Orleans had new immigrants. It's almost like they were all working together to stick it to American hurricane victims.
I think it's $13,000 a year.
So they weren't looking for a handout.
There. I fixed it.
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