Holly Gorani of CNNI just hinted that undocumented workers are doing the cleaning in Grand Isle

[JCMach1]

No one was 'allowed' to tell her where the workers were from. Then she said that we 'have our suspicions, but can't tell you...'

They also wouldn't tell her who they were working for... BP? FEMA? Contractor?

Please update this if anyone hears anything else about this...

She had also interviewed a shrimping company that had only received $5000 from BP so far and was asked to submit two years of documents proving income for any further compensation. $5000 was enough to pay the light bill in the business for about one month. :(

[EFerrari]

1. Is that the big story here? Some undocumented workers are cleaning up?

:shrug:

[JCMach1]

2. No, but I suspect there are a lot of coastal Louisiana people who are needing jobs

right about now...

[EFerrari]

3. Do you think that undocumented workers are not people?

Doesn't it seem to you that triangulating a community in crisis is probably a bad idea? Seeing as how people need to pull together?

It seems like a really bad idea to me, anyway.

[dkf]

5. If American citizens get jobs that means taxes paid health benefits paid and

Unemployment not paid which is good for other citizens. So yes it is more important that American citizens work than seasonal undocumented workers.

[JCMach1]

7. There is a question of corporations hiring illegals, that is all

I am not for that in any context. In fact, that exact activity drives much of the illegal immigration to the US...

I have always been for legal immigration and some sort of pathway to citizenship for those already here.

Questioning the legality of a corporation's actions does not mean you are anti-immigrant, or anti-immigration.

[NYC_SKP]

4. These people are typically hired without safety oversight and at slave wages, so yeah...

I've got a real problem with that, I think it's newsworthy.

:patriot:

[JCMach1]

8. +1

[chill_wind]

6. That's never been suggested

by Mac McClelland ("It's BP's Oil") who did an extensive Mother Jones reporting just recently, and had contact with the workers and the whole scenario where she was, or any of the media accounts about Grand Isle over the weekend, in which many local officials and local residents were interviewed and gave expression about a lot of things. Their not talking to the press and local officials might appear to be more a matter of an imposed BP worker gag in effort to mitigate any chain of responsibility for whatever corners are being cut in worker health protections, training and safety.

The real issue would seem to be that 200,000 gallons of oil and toxic sludge are being spewed every day, some part of that ever steadily churning toward the beaches and marshes, where on any ordinary day, BP has only seen fit to provide 12-20 people in some places to sop it up over and over, each new wave bringing more hopelessness and more despair of what is still out there and yet to come. The real issue seems to be not nearly enough manpower from anywhere.

[JCMach1]

9. There are 151248 people unemployed in Louisiana alone,

much less Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas... http://wwwprd.doa.louisiana.gov/LaNews/PublicPages/Dsp_PressRelease_Display.cfm?PressReleaseID=2431&Rec_ID=4

[chill_wind]

10. And only 20,000 people are assigned to the entire region and ALL of its work encompassed.

That's according to the fed response website. That's my point- BP has chosen to underpower the whole response effort,
except for making a show when the President toured and they knew cameras would be rolling, that for once, they couldn't restrict. That is what appears to the local frustration, and the story they were telling over and over in Grand Isle. And what President Obama was responding to when he vowed to triple the manpower after his visit.

Whether that will happen anytime soon under BP is another story...

:shrug: