The core (tho' flawed and false) argument is their labor value...
The problem is the complaint that they are being underpaid! ROFL
ARTICLE LINK:
http://kevxml2adsl.verizon.net/_1_2N88TO10...=&feed=ap&top=1
ARTICLE EXERPT:
QUOTE
Illegal Workers Face Hardship in Big Easy
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS - Illegal immigrants helping to rebuild this shattered city are working in hazardous conditions without protective gear and earning far less than their legal counterparts, a study says.
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, according to the study by professors at Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley.
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.
Under federal labor law, illegal immigrants are afforded the same health and safety protections as documented workers. And regardless of their legal status, laborers can sue most employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act for violation of the minimum wage law and overtime regulations, according to the researchers.
The U.S. Department of Labor had no immediate comment on the report.
Before last year's hurricane, Louisiana had one of the smallest Hispanic populations in the country - 2.5 percent of residents compared with 12.5 percent nationally.
Census data indicates nearly 100,000 Hispanics moved to the Gulf Coast region following Hurricane Katrina, lured by promises of high wages and plentiful work. It is unclear precisely how many have come to New Orleans, though the study estimates one-quarter of the construction workers in New Orleans are illegal immigrants.
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS - Illegal immigrants helping to rebuild this shattered city are working in hazardous conditions without protective gear and earning far less than their legal counterparts, a study says.
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, according to the study by professors at Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley.
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.
Under federal labor law, illegal immigrants are afforded the same health and safety protections as documented workers. And regardless of their legal status, laborers can sue most employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act for violation of the minimum wage law and overtime regulations, according to the researchers.
The U.S. Department of Labor had no immediate comment on the report.
Before last year's hurricane, Louisiana had one of the smallest Hispanic populations in the country - 2.5 percent of residents compared with 12.5 percent nationally.
Census data indicates nearly 100,000 Hispanics moved to the Gulf Coast region following Hurricane Katrina, lured by promises of high wages and plentiful work. It is unclear precisely how many have come to New Orleans, though the study estimates one-quarter of the construction workers in New Orleans are illegal immigrants.
This is a well staged platform from which to establish another welfare system for those who are not our citizens.
FROM THE ARTICLE:
QUOTE
"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.
What rights? I thought that the point of illegal aliens (according to McCain and Kennedy and Bush) is that they do jobs others "won't" do! So apparently they proclaim that they will work for less, but when we doing so they scream human rights! WTF!?!? All this does is undermine their value as a labor force, lol.
