Immigrant day-laborers cleaning up fire-damaged areas for FREE...

Can it get any more unfair for hard-working immigrants?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: "AlterNet Immigration Coverage"

Date: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 12:48 PM

Latest Coverage on Immigration at AlterNet

July 8th, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/immigration

From the editors:

California's ablaze with fires spreading along the coast and threatening a
dozen towns.

Unlike municipal firefighters, who earn a fair wage and are represented by
unions, the fire crews that battle these fires are seasonal workers. Fire
crews work incredibly long hours at an incredibly difficult and dangerous
job, and are paid peanuts for putting their lives on the line. Perhaps it
should come as no surprise, then, that half of all of these firefighters are
immigrants, and an "untold" portion of them are undocumented. The New York
Times cited one expert who estimated that one in ten workers on fire crews
are undocumented immigrants.

Then there's the clean-up from fire-damaged areas. The Orange County
Register reports that in Lake Forest, California, "illegal" day-laborers are
volunteering to help rebuild gratis:

Lake Forest day laborers along with laborers from Los Angeles will take part
in a project to aid communities affected by last year's fires. The day of
service by the Day Laborer Fire Relief Brigade is one of several in Southern
California organized by area day laborers.

"The idea came from them (day laborers)," said Veronica Federovsky, West
Coast coordinator for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "When the
fire started in OC they told me, 'We want to help but we don't know how.'"

Meanwhile, Homeland Security announced in May that in the event of an
emergency evacuation the announcement mentioned hurricanes, but presumably
this would apply to any emergency law enforcement agencies will continue to
man immigration checkpoints along California's highways, and would verify
evacuees' citizenship before allowing them to board buses out of the
emergency zone. Anyone without papers would be evacuated straight to an ICE
detention facility.

I think all this says quite a bit about where we're at in terms of
immigration in America.

-Joshua Holland

Editor, Immigration Special Coverage