When they showed up, she says, the first thing they did was ask for his immigration status. “These are the sort of situations that prevent day laborers from asking for help when their wages are denied,” Gonzalez says.

The politics of immigration are thorny, but it is a simple truth that construction companies routinely use day laborers without checking their immigration status: Thousands of those workers have helped and are helping to rebuild New Orleans. But those workers commonly suffer abuse due to their immigration status, including threats of violence and wage theft. Despite the best efforts of workers’ rights groups, five years after the hurricane, advocates say abuse remains rampant. Now, those groups are calling for specific legislation to protect vulnerable workers — documented and not — and to make sure they get their due.

After Hurricane Katrina, the number of undocumented workers in New Orleans increased substantially, in part because of a Department of Homeland Security directive to suspend employment immigration enforcement in the area immediately following the storm. The suspension expired quickly, but it created an inviting environment for undocumented immigrants, says Elizabeth Fussell, a professor at Washington State University.

“Conditions were set to attract a labor force of Latino immigrants,” Fussell says. “There was a large population of undocumented immigrants who were coming to do the work that was necessary in the city.”

Though there are no firm numbers on undocumented workers, social scientists point to increases in the Latino population to show the influx of immigrants. The Latino population increased from a 4.4 percent share of the population in 2000 to 6.6 percent last year, according to Census data. Advocacy groups say it is likely higher, about 10 percent.

Thousands of those workers came to work rebuilding New Orleans — clearing debris, fixing roads, building houses, constructing schools. “After Katrina hit, there was much more work and much more wages for people — there were other wages to be found,” Gonzalez says.

And along with the rise of undocumented workers and construction problems came wage theft — to which undocumented immigrants are particularly vulnerable. In a 2007 survey of Mexican migrants at the Mexican mobile consulate in a suburb of New Orleans, Fussell found that 24 percent had experienced situations where an employer did not pay, while about 16 percent had been paid less than they were promised. Nearly 90 percent of those surveyed were working in the country illegally. The Congress of Day Laborers last year found that 80 percent of the workers it represents had been victims of wage theft in the past year.

The consequences are particularly dire for undocumented workers, who do not have access to the same legal and policing resources as other workers. “When you’re not paid for that money, the consequences can be much more serious. It’s the difference between being able to pay rent and being homeless,” says Gonzales.

Nonprofit and advocacy groups stepped in to fill the void, helping undocumented workers regain wages from bosses who stiffed them. The Pro Bono Project and Loyola New Orleans’ School of Law help workers sue their employers, for instance. At the Pro Bono clinic, established in 2007, lawyer Vanessa Spinazola says 90 percent of the workers represented are undocumented. Last year, in a nine-month period, lawyers at the clinic saw 476 workers, filed 365 cases and helped draft 146 demand letters.

Oxfam America funds the Pro Bono clinic, but was forced to discontinue its project on workers’ rights in July due to a lack of funds. Ilana Scherl, a field representative for Oxfam who previously worked on the worker’s rights project, says New Orleans just had too much need and too little funding for the initiative. “I guess a lot of foundations feel like five years later everything should be taken care of,” she says. “The problems are still there but the funds are not.” Spinazola says the clinic has enough funding from Oxfam to operate until July 2011, and she is “writing grants as fast as possible” to find money to continue the clinics.

The clinic is still very much needed, particularly because workers often face violence from employers for demanding their wages, she says. The clinic tells workers to put the address of a clinic P.O. box on their demand letters, so that if employers want to retaliate they won’t have their home addresses. Workers whose employers know their addresses often move before sending the letter. Fear deters some workers from seeking their wages, but others move forward with claims, Spinazola says. “They’re afraid but they need the money or they think they deserve their money — which they do.”

Of course, for illegal immigrants there is also a fear that their employers will call ICE. Spinazola said she suspects that happened a few years ago, when the clinic helped a group of about 40 men who were living and working in an apartment complex to send a letter demanding wages. Most of the men moved out before the letter was sent, but seven were still present when the employer received the demand letter. Two days later, Spinazola said ICE raided the apartments. Three of the men were deported.

Worker’s rights advocates argue that a city ordinance is essential to combating a wage theft problem too big for advocates and undocumented workers to deal with on their own. “The workers need protection, they’re not getting it right now,” Scherl says. “The only way we see to achieve that is to have a policy in place protecting the workers.”

The New Orleans Center for Racial Justice helped develop a policy, but the exact direction of the potential ordinance remains unclear. New Orleans City Councilman Arnie Fielkow has said he would support a wage theft ordinance, and groups are now negotiating the ordinance with the mayor’s office and other officials at city hall.

In New Orleans, some advocates of a wage theft ordinance said they are concerned growing anti-illegal immigrant sentiment will play into their effort to pass the ordinance. But they are hoping the general goodwill many New Orleans residents feel toward the workers who helped rebuild their city will make matters easier.

“In this climate, the fear of opposition is always there,” Gonzalez says. “But New Orleans is a city that recognizes that day laborers did participate and did come to the rescue in terms of reconstruction.”

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“Americans have demanded a real fence to combat the very real problems of illegal immigration that have led to human trafficking, drug trafficking, kidnapping and violence on our border,” DeMint said in a statement. “Congress will never be able to achieve long-term reform to create a legal immigration system that works until we secure our borders.”

The amendment will require the support of 60 senators to pass. Last year’s version attracted only 54.

h/t: The Hill.

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Olavarria, in particular, signals a major change for DHS.

Not only does she come from the progressive CAP, but she spent almost 10 years as counsel to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees. Her work there included proposals on comprehensive immigration reform. Olavarria started her career as an immigrants’ advocate when she was a managing attorney of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center; she has also been directing attorney of the American Immigration Lawyers Association Pro Bono Project and staff attorney at the Haitian Refugee Center in Miami.

Here’s what the National Immigration Forum had to say about today’s choices:

In selecting John Morton, the President has chosen a seasoned federal prosecutor who understands the importance of documenting the facts and ensuring government transparency. These skills will be immediately relevant to the review and assessment ordered by Secretary Janet Napolitano of controversial and loosely managed immigration programs, including partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies and detention conditions for immigrants. The head of ICE will be key in moving DHS towards the vision Secretary Napolitano articulated in her recent directive, “Smart, resolute enforcement by the department can keep Americans safe, foster legal immigration to America, protect legitimate commerce, and lay the groundwork for a more comprehensive reform.”

Esther Olavarria is deeply committed to the goal of crafting immigration policies that are both enforceable and enforced. No person is better suited to help the Secretary and the President understand what ails our current immigration mess and what needs to be done to restore legality, transparency, and fairness to our immigration system.

Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security was called to respond to a small group of protesters in front of the federal building who were calling attention to U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave’s votes to cut veterans’ healthcare benefits and her rubber stamp support of the Bush Administration’s Iraq War policies.

According to the “Caught Red-Handed” protest action organizer Jan Peterson:

We stood on the sidewalks and held our protest signs for passing pedestrians and motorists to see.  We also handed out leaflets with facts to support our positions.

Although many drove by as if they had blinders on, we received warm, supportive comments from most passers-by and friendly waves from passing motorists, including a policeman.

Peterson recalled that at 1 pm – when the hour-long protest was ending as planned – a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) vehicle arrived on the scene with emergency lights flashing.

Officer Moreno explained that someone in the building complained that the protestors “stepped on the grass” thus intruding on federal property and called DHS to disperse them. For those not familiar, the building also houses a post office and the local IRS and FBI departments which results in a fair amount of public traffic on the sidewalks and within the building and adjacent parking lot.

Fellow protestor Dale Karlin noted that the officer asked if the group was working for “the other candidate”. She replied that they were with MoveOn and had posterboard signs, red foam hands, and fliers on Musgrave’s military bill voting record – nothing that referred to or represented CD-4 Democratic challenger Angie Paccione. 

Due to the experience of the folks that delivered the petition to Marilyn Musgrave’s office earlier this year we three were absolutely scrupulous about staying on the public sidewalk with our feet and all papers and property we brought, Karlin said.

Both Peterson and Karlin were ordered to produce their driver’s licenses as identification which Officer Moreno copied. As the officer left the scene he replied that the protest was orderly and did not require any action.

Shortly afterward, another DHS officer arrived. Karlin recounted:

Some ten minutes later, as we were leaving yet another Homeland Security Federal Protection Service car turned into the parking lot.  This Officer knew nothing about Officer Moreno’s call to the scene but stated the procedure was that the complaint call from inside the building had to be made to the main Homeland Security dispatch office in Denver and then routed to Fort Collins resulting in the sending out of Officer Moreno’s vehicle.  I spoke to this second officer to ask if the parking lot was in his jurisdiction and he said that the Federal Building along with its parking lot were under the jurisdiction of Homeland Security while the public sidewalks were under the jurisdiction of the Fort Collins Police Department.  Further, he said that Officer Moreno had to take name(s) to properly fill out his report on the incident.
He stated that the jurisdiction issue was a possible “gray area” where names would be noted and information taken to cover officer responsibilities.

I couldn’t contain myself so I asked the second officer how much money it cost in taxpayer funds to dispatch an officer to this scene to harass law-abiding citizens who were doing only that which is covered in our Bill of Rights.  He got the point and said that most officers do their jobs but think first about the rights of us citizens.  Both officers were former military and both were supportive of our message.  They regretted the pettiness of this situation but had to do their jobs.

Following this experience, Peterson and Karlin asserted that they would continue organizing weekly law-abiding “Caught Red-Handed” protests on the sidewalk leading to the Fort Collins Federal Building.