In the year since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, thousands of illegal immigrants have come to the Southeast for the first time to work. Most speak no English and often take under-the-table jobs without knowing even the names of those who hire them. In what is becomeing a typical case, last month the National Immigration Law Center filed suit on behalf of 82 guest workers from Bolivia, Peru and the Dominican Republic against Decatur Hotels, a downtown New Orleans chain. The suit alleges that the workers were recruited, went into debt to get here, then weren't given the work hours they were promised.
See "Many of Katrina's Migrant Workers Go Unpaid", Sam Quinones, Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2006