Catherwood LibraryILR School

In the debate over immigration, they are virtually unheard, unseen: the hundreds of thousands of foreign-born women, many of them in the U.S. illegally, who toil in America's homes as nannies, cooks and housekeepers, changing diapers and scrubbing floors. They are jobs of last resort for people whose other options are few. The lucky ones earn decent wages, and build a promising future for their families. The less fortunate, isolated and apprehensive, suffer a dismaying array of abuses ? from exploitively low wages to sexual harassment. Some are forced to sleep in closets; others are threatened with deportation if they complain about overwork. "These people can be very, very vulnerable, particularly if they're not documented," said Sam Dunning, who oversees social justice programs for the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.