PASADENA, Texas (AP) - All along the Texas coast, Latino
immigrants are hauling away fallen trees, slashing through
storm-tangled brush and patching punctured roofs.
You'll find them on working-class street corners, on ladders in
front of Victorian houses, in the yards of ornate mansions. Crews
of these men in dusty jeans, sturdy workboots and baseball caps are
nearly as ubiquitous in the post-Hurricane Ike landscape as blue
tarps on rooftops.
They're picked up off the street by homeowners looking for
quick, cheap labor, and they're helping rebuild the devastated
cities of Southeast Texas.
Many of them are in the country illegally; others are legal
residents in need of income after Hurricane Ike disrupted their
regular jobs.
Ike brought a wide swath of destruction, but also the prospect
of more work, higher wages and a respite from the ever-present
threat of deportation. Many day laborers say jobs in the Houston
area had started to dry up recently, and police and immigration
officials had been cracking down.
Now, everybody works.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)