Posted on 10/13/2001 1:48:47 PM PDT by sarcasm
NEW YORK (AP) -- They delivered pizzas to investment bankers, ironed the shirts of Wall Street traders and cleared dirty dishes from the restaurant tables in Manhattan's financial district where multimillion deals were sealed.
But many of the businesses where they toiled for low pay near the World Trade Center have been closed since Sept. 11, leaving these undocumented workers unemployed and without the same relief benefits available to others.
The city lost an estimated 100,000 jobs after the attacks. Advocacy groups estimate thousands of the workers were immigrants -- many of them illegal aliens who received their pay in cash and are ineligible for unemployment payments.
Advocacy groups are beginning efforts to claim some aid for the workers. The Tepeyac Association of New York, a group that helps undocumented Hispanics, is organizing workers to tap into the hundreds of millions of dollars being donated to help New York recover from the attacks.
``I think it's good for us to get the businesses open because our people can work again, but what happens if there is no way to reopen the businesses?'' said the group's executive director, Brother Joel Magallan. ``These people have been making this economy better and producing good things for people.''
At a meeting last week at the association's offices, only four of the 50 mostly Mexican workers raised their hands when asked if they had found work after the attacks.
Delfino Cielo spent the last three years as a restaurant busboy, making $450 to $500 weekly, including his share of tips. But his restaurant at the World Financial Center complex next to the trade center has no plans to reopen. And his wife lost her dry cleaning job nearby because business was so slow the owner had to lay off workers.
Some of the 20 restaurants where Cielo has tried to get work wouldn't take his application because he is in the country illegally and doesn't have a Social Security number. Others have no openings because of a steep drop in business following the attacks.
``I fill out an application, and they never call me,'' Cielo said. ``I had a little money saved, but I had to pay the rent and the electricity and now it's all gone.''
Magallan told the workers they can get some assistance to pay rent, and up to two weeks in wages if they can prove they lost their jobs because of the attacks. Among the agencies providing immediate assistance to undocumented workers is the American Red Cross.
But advocates want to ensure that an estimated $1 billion in longer-term assistance, which will eventually be doled out by more than 100 charities, will also be available to undocumented workers. Many charities are still developing criteria for distributing the money.
Cielo, who used to send $300 monthly to his mother and his 9-year-old nephew in Cholula, said he doesn't want to return to Mexico because the economy is worse there.
He and others also fear that, if they return, they will lose out on a Bush administration proposal made before the attacks to grant legal status to up to 3 million undocumented Mexicans in the United States.
But Felipe Cirne, a 33-year-old Mexican who made salads at a deli near the trade center for $325 weekly, said he will return to Puebla, Mexico, and risk the consequences if he doesn't land a job soon.
Since the attacks, he has picked up only odd jobs in the financial district, cleaning dust and dirt off the windows and walls of businesses preparing to reopen. It's not enough to support his three children and wife who live in Mexico.
``If I don't find work in three months, I'm going home,'' Cirne said.
Other advocacy groups say they will lobby to make sure that businesses that receive grants to help them reopen provide decent wages for service workers, said Margie McHugh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella organization for about 200 groups that work with immigrants and refugees.
``If we don't bring back the service sector in New York, we don't bring back New York's economy,'' she said. ``This is an ideal moment to be inserting economic justice concerns into the rebuilding conversation.''
GAG
Among the agencies providing immediate assistance to undocumented workers is the American Red Cross.
Too compassionate for me!
Nope.
"Undocumented Workers" are Illegal Aliens and are in our country illegally! Period!
Deport all Illegal Aliens and let's get our borders secure!
Seek Legitimacy!
But he steals from Americans by not paying taxes -I consider that the same as asking for money.
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