Posted on 10/10/2005 11:37:09 AM PDT by Crackingham
Most of the signs are handwritten and simply worded, such as "Workers Wanted" or "Need 50 Laborers Now!"
Word has gotten out and each morning day laborers — who come from Central America and Mexico by way of California, Texas and Arizona — gather on street corners in the Kenner and Metairie neighborhoods on the western edge of the city. Lured by jobs paying $15 to $17 an hour, the Spanish-speaking day laborers have flooded into New Orleans to haul out debris, clear downed trees, put in drywall and perform other tasks as rebuilding takes hold in the city. Specialized roofers can make $300 a day. Contractors know the new day-labor pickup spots. By noon, a tree-trimming firm hires the last available hand on Williams Boulevard near Interstate 10.
"We've never had Hispanic day laborer sites. That's a totally new phenomenon," said David Ware, a longtime New Orleans immigration lawyer.
With 140,000 homes destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is undergoing the nation's largest reconstruction effort and its new workforce is largely Latino. No one knows how many immigrants have descended here since Katrina ravaged the city five weeks ago, but their presence is visible throughout the city.
Abimael and Filegonia Diaz may have been among the first wave of newcomers. Since Sept. 12, the couple has been clearing debris, washing windows and sweeping floors at a hotel in downtown New Orleans. For six years, Abimael worked in Nashville as a day laborer and sent money to Filegonia and their three young children in Mexico.
"We'll stay here because I think the job will last a long time," Abimael Diaz said. "If we can make enough money, we would like to buy a house and bring our children to New Orleans."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
We don't want 'that kind' in America. It undermines the welfare state.
Regardless, illegals or not, there is going to be a alot of skilled and trade work that has to be done on the Gulf Coast. If you are unemployed in some place like Michigan or Pennsylvania, where democrats have killed any economic growth, I suggest you move to New Orleans or at least temporarily relocate there. You will be working for the next 3 years.
ping
SOMEHOW those jobs DID get done before the invasion of illegal aliens was imposed upon us.
Americans should be OUTRAGED that these jobs will be given to illegal alien lawbreakers in favor of American citizens who NEED the jobs, and everyone in Washington from the White House down should hear from us!
A good place to contact them, in addition to calling their offices, is at www.numbersusa.com. Free prewritten, preaddressed faxes there that need to be sent.
Sounds like a target-rich-environment!
Round up the foreign invaders and ship 'em back!
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
Actually $17/hr in N.O. is pretty good because their cost of living is very low.
I found a website a while back that did the wage equivalent calcs and N.O. is about 50% of Chicago and 74% of Manhattan.
As such that'd be $34 an hour in Chicago. That's MORE than pretty good, you don't go hungry by any means on $1340 a week.
An aside, that's why I thought it was stoo-pid of the dems and unions to be whining about Dubya waiving the prevailing wage laws. Union workers who go down there for the big projects will be making a killing.
The truly amazing thing is that so-called black "leaders" almost universally oppose immigration reform. You would think they would be all for it, given the unemployment rates in their own communities. But then again, if immigration rates fell and there was an acute labor shortage, there might be enormous pressure on unemployed blacks to take these jobs. At a minimum, it would be hard for black leaders to defend anti-poverty entitlement programs while thousands of good-paying jobs went begging.
I think that a lot of ideological demogogery will slow the reconstruction. President Bush suspended a 1931 law amid howls from the left. Randi Rhodes on c-span yesterday objected that it would mean that people would be paid $5 rather than the prevailing $9. I get annoyed when people launch a big controversy while they ignore economics. There is a huge shortage of workers that is pushing up labor rates. So, there is no need to talk about Mexcians taking away anyone's jobs or driving down wages. These erroneous gripes just act in restraint of trade. By the way, this is the first time I ever heard of the left praising an economic measure of Herbert Hoover.
New Orleans cuisine is Creole, not Cajun, and it already has a Spanish influence.
The Interstate from BR to New Orleans is torn up. You have a parking lot on Airline Highway for 50 miles. The Causeway is no more. You can't get there from here. Yes, it is very expensive to sit and idle your car at $2.50 a gallon. My brother is considering buying a camper to keep from having to drive back and forth, but FEMA bought all the campers.
That should read, Beinaviedas!
You've got me confused with someone else, I've never said anything derogatory about Mexicans!
So, there's no need to falsely accuse this old curmudgeon of something he didn't do.
So perhaps the question is where and how are these swarms of hispanic workers "living" to be able to work in NO?
And why can't others follow suit?
Damnit, if the food at my favorite Mexican resturants starts to suck, I'm gonna have to blame it on Katrina.
Dear Poodlebrain,
Well, yea, they're different.
What about "illegal," do you not understand? The fact that the unemployed of New Orleans, or other American cities, are not taking these jobs is a national disgrace.
The Latinos may well be splendid chaps, but they are here in violation of the law. We certainly cannot expect to enforce the law among our own people, if we do not enforce our border laws.
Could the African-American Democrat and idiot, Ray Nagin, be the first of his ilk to notice that illegal immigrants are eating his constituents' lunch?
Why aren't the people who live there on welfare not grabbing those jobs?
This has already been tried. It's called prep school and many never recover.
You seem to be the only one whose mentioned that, so far as I can see.
susie
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