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Article published Aug 26, 2006
Group claims immigrants stealing reconstruction jobs from locals
By Ana Radelat

WASHINGTON - A new group says immigrant laborers are stealing coveted hurricane reconstruction jobs from victims of last year's storms, a claim that brings the bitter national debate over illegal immigration to the Gulf Coast.

Members of the group, Choose Black America, want to stop the flow of illegal immigrants, who they say are more willing than local residents to work for low wages and live in substandard conditions.

"Companies were awarded billions of tax dollars dedicated to rebuilding the region but are evading immigration and other laws designed to protect American workers - out of sheer greed," conservative black columnist Armstrong Williams, a member of the coalition, said. "There are many people who want to come back to New Orleans, but there are no opportunities for them," he said.

Corporations and local officials say that's not so. They say there are jobs enough for everyone, and at higher wages than before Katrina hit.

The displacement of thousands of people and the massive scale of the rebuilding job has increased wages and created the need to import workers from outside the state and even outside the country, they say.

"If someone can't find work here on the coast, they're not looking very hard," said Billy Skellie, the mayor of Long Beach. "Especially on the construction side, you can't find enough workers."

Tom Weatherly, spokesman for the Louisiana Restaurant Association, said the industry could use another 5,000 employees. Fewer than half of New Orleans' restaurants have reopened.

Weatherly also said labor shortages in the restaurant sector and other businesses have driven local wages up about 30 percent.

According to June statistics, there were fewer people out of work in the New Orleans area than in the rest of Louisiana. The unemployment rate for the New Orleans area was 4.2 percent and for the state it was 4.6 percent.

"You have a situation where there's a smaller pool of workers, but they're all working," said Ed Pratt, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Labor.

Choose Black America says illegal immigration is the single greatest impediment to black advancement in the United States. One of the group's members is the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that advocates limiting immigration.

"Sometimes people with different interests come together for a cause," Armstrong said.

Armstrong became a focus of controversy last year after it was revealed he had accepted money from Bush administration officials to promote the No Child Left Behind education law on his nationally syndicated television show.

Immigrant advocacy groups say Choose Black America is cynically using the tragedy wrought by Katrina to blame illegal immigration for a problem that doesn't really exist.

"There are legitimate issues on how (reconstruction) money has been spent, but it's unfair to place the blame on immigrants," said Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum. "This is creating a bigger breach between black and brown issues."

The Labor Department has investigated numerous reports that unscrupulous contractors have exploited undocumented workers in the Katrina-ravaged area, and agency officials have confirmed some of the reports.

One major obstacle for returning workers is a lack of rental housing. Skellie said more than 12,000 apartment units were destroyed by Katrina in Long Beach.

"The work is here, the housing isn't," he said.

Because of Mississippi's labor shortage, Gov. Haley Barbour has inaugurated a program that pays the moving costs of displaced workers willing to return to the Gulf Coast. He has largely avoided the controversy over the steady stream of immigrant workers who have made their way to the Gulf Coast.

But some have plunged into the debate.

"How do I make sure New Orleans is not overrun with Mexican workers?" New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin mused at a business conference last year.

Mississippi State Treasurer Phil Bryant is among those seeking to curb the influx of newcomers, saying they cost the state millions of dollars in health care and education services. Bryant said he'd like to see a guest worker program that would allow immigrants to play a role in reconstructing the Gulf Coast - and send them home when they're no longer needed.

"But the simplest solution would be to secure the border," Bryant said.