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 ...
This is exactly what is happening to my friend's son.
He has been turned down left and right in some of these construction jobs, as well as warehouse jobs, because he doesn't speak spanish. Therefore would not be able to communicate with his fellow workers.
He's scrubbing surgery rooms now for $9.32/hour, and wondering just how long that will last.
My next door neighbor recently had her roof replaced because of Katrina. I was here by myself all day and kept all my doors locked and my burglar alarm on all day while I was home alone.
There are plenty of Americans coming down here to work. The area is jam packed with people from all over the country. The best thing is that hundreds, probably thousands of Christians from all sorts of churches are coming down here and volunteering through local churches. I was at one church the other day that has volunteers lined up for the rest of the year.
And...I know a great many Americans who do construction work, some in my family.
So before you make a blanket statement about work that Americans "WILL NOT DO" in support of illegal immigrants you'd best check your facts.
Perhaps you intended to add a qualifier, but your statement as written was demonstrably FALSE in the context of the story to which you were responding.
There's your "And".
Please read post #13. This is what I was responding to. Do the math and you will see it is $13,000 a month.
My bad. It is post #73.
How things have changed in 20 years.
Actually I mentioned that as an anedote. And it is my job to be sure things like that are on the up and up. If they are not there are financial repercussions to myself and the dealer. I only had to prove about 4000 a month, so it was not as if he had a motive to have a gigantic fake paystub.
When you're wiped out of home and all worldly possessions, one would expect some eagerness rebuild and move on - at any cost, "substandard" be damned. And yes, that may involve "construction" work which appears to be beneath many of those in NO who sit back and refuse to do the work now done by illegals. I fail to see where anyone can condemn anyone willing to do work others see beneath them, especially when it is to repair/construct damage by natural disasters. The idea that there is a standard that some must adhere to while refusing the put their lives back together is beyond me.
Get my facts straight? I get my info from national news outlets, MSM included. No, I haven't been there to see for myself like i haven't jumped off a cliff to see the results of the sudden stop in the end.
The hoity-toity attitude about construction work seems a bit over the top. Who hasn't done construction work or have family in construction?
I stand by what I said in relation to this story. The lazy SOBs sitting in their fat hind ends deserve to be criticized for work they refuse to do. Let those who are willing do the job and get paid for it, more the better.
That's different than saying that the illegals are "doing work that AMERICANS refuse to do".
I objected to your blanket quote of that propagandist statement.
And my objection remains.
(And "hoity-toity attitude about construction work"? How the heck did you manage to read that into my response?)
most of the "residents" didn't work before Katrina...Alot of folks in North Louisiana went down there to work and were told "sorry".....$16 -$20 bucks an hour is a lot for a lot of guys up here willing to work, but the people down there (mostly) would rather hire the mexicans.
They hold out social security, state income tax and federal income and medicare tax...pay pedro what's left, pocket all the taxes cause they know they are illegal and they can get away with it...chepa labor plus a kickback...why would they hire an American and have to actually send all that money to the goobermint??
please explain: what is a Tax ID legal?
Not a SS#, because they arent a citizen. Allows employer to hire and apply taxes to. As to the Tax laws I have no idea.
Mexico's consulates are instructing illegals to get tax ID numbers in order to open bank accounts, but the number doesn't give the individual work authorization. Legal Permanent Residents have social security numbers. I wonder if these "tax ID legals" are in another category or if they are illegals who have applied for and received the tax ID # from the SSA.
I'd imagine the legal Hispanics have all these jobs. The rising demand out here in California is for those who speak the indigenous languages spoken in Mexico, because now we must provide interpreters for the illegals who don't know English or Spanish. If you learn mixteco, you'll really be in business
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