Displaced Techies

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Displaced Techies

allow american workers to participate in the global economy!

Tuesday September 20, 2005

Will New Orleans be rebuilt by cheap forein labor

Even though most of the displaced people of New Orleans (I am talking about the poor ones still living in shelters) are hard working and perfectly capable of doing the rebuilding work, some are wondering about the way reconstruction is working so far

Congress has already allocated $60 billion dollars to the rebuilding effort, and that cost is expected to eventually exceed $100B. The people receiving those contracts are the same companies "rebuilding" Iraq: The Shaw Group, Bechtel National, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), and Halliburton.

On Sept. 6, DHS said employers did not have to use I-9 forms when hiring people displaced by the hurricane. While this can be helpful to someone wanting to get back to work whose identification is in a flooded house in the 9th Ward, that also opens the door wide to abuse by companies. The possibility exists to abuse this temporary exception to bring anyone in from anywhere to do these jobs.

On Sept. 8, Bush issued an executive order allowing federal contractors rebuilding NOLA to pay workers BELOW the prevailing wage. This means the foreigners brought in to do this work won't even be paid what a normal laborer in Mississippi or LA would be paid (and that really isn't alot to begin with in that region).

It's beginning to look like poor Americans displaced by Katrina won't be allowed back to work in NOLA, or maybe not even to live in their hometown. This FindLaw article points out that there is now a legal precedent that may allow officials to sieze land for the rebuilding effort:

" Can Black people's homes and land be taken in the service of this "rebuilding"? The worrisome answer, after the Supreme Court's recent Takings Clause decision, Kelo v.New London, is yes.

There, the Court held that a transfer of private land, to private developers, for "economic development," had a "public purpose" sufficient to satisfy the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment. "

This should be simple. Hire the people from NOLA who want to return to do this rebuilding. Pay them the prevailing wage. The city's culture will be closer to what it should be, and everyone gets a piece of the pie.

-via the Job Destruction Newsletter

06:16 am
Tuesday September 20, 2005
posted by gmminks
link

Health Risks of not enforcing immigration laws

Two years ago in the town I live in, there were no tuberculosis cases. So far this year there have been 11.

According to the Board of Health, all of the cases are isolated to the illegal immigrant community.

The theory is that the disease is brought by one immigrant, and then spreads throught that community because the immigrants live in extremely crowded conditions. According to one health officer:

"As we all know, tuberculosis can be highly contagious through coughing, breathing and sneezing," said health officer Paul Mazzuchelli. "By living in an overcrowded home, you can increase the risk tenfold. Now it's a public health issue we have to address."

The health department in my town is also concerned about a huge increase in bedbugs:

Supposedly eradicated in Milford in the 1950s, Mazzuchelli said he suspects they have returned to the area in the clothes, blankets and mattresses of recent immigrants.

"One tenant wanted to move out, so she brought to me a bag of 15 of them," Mazzuchelli said. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."
05:24 am

posted by gmminks
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