CNN/AP: Study: Katrina rebuilding exploits illegals

[DeepModem Mom]

Study: Katrina rebuilding exploits illegals
Immigrants in New Orleans often work in hazardous conditions
Wednesday, June 7, 2006

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- They are the backbone of post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction: Workers who converge at dawn and wait to be picked up for 14-hour shifts of hauling debris, ripping out drywall and nailing walls.

But because many are in the country illegally, immigrant workers rebuilding New Orleans are especially vulnerable to exploitation, according to a study released Tuesday by professors at Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley.

The illegal immigrants often work in hazardous conditions without protective gear and earn far less than their legal counterparts, the study said. Nearly one-third of the illegal immigrants interviewed by researchers reported working with harmful substances and in dangerous conditions, while 19 percent said they were not given any protective equipment.

Illegal immigrants also were paid significantly less -- if at all -- earning on average $10 per hour, compared with $16.50 for documented workers, the study said.

"What is fundamentally unfair is these are workers who have responded to a national priority to rebuild this city and yet whose rights are being violated," said Laurel Fletcher, director of Berkeley's International Human Rights Law Clinic and one of the study's co-authors....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/07/katrina.illegal.immigrants.ap/index.html

[havocmom]

1. Still going on? After the Hallliburton sub contractor story? Still?

So, INS must have been ordered to stand down so this could continue for MONTHS!

Gee, the law & order crowd in action.

[sadiesworld]

2. That's the point of illegal labor...

exploitation. Duh.

[Eugene]

3. kick n/t