Alternet Immigration coverage >>

From the editors at Alternet comes a report of the many immigrants fighting California fires as day laborers.

---

 

California's ablaze with fires spreading along the coast and threatening a dozen towns.

Unlike municipal firefighters, who earn a fair wage and are represented by unions, the fire crews that battle these fires are seasonal workers. Fire crews work incredibly long hours at an incredibly difficult and dangerous job, and are paid peanuts for putting their lives on the line. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that half of all of these firefighters are immigrants, and an "untold" portion of them are undocumented. The New York Times cited one expert who estimated that one in ten workers on fire crews are undocumented immigrants.

Then there's the clean-up from fire-damaged areas. The Orange County Register reports that in Lake Forest, California, "illegal" day-laborers are volunteering to help rebuild gratis:

 

Lake Forest day laborers along with laborers from Los Angeles will take part in a project to aid communities affected by last year's fires. The day of service by the Day Laborer Fire Relief Brigade is one of several in Southern California organized by area day laborers.

"The idea came from them (day laborers)," said Veronica Federovsky, West Coast coordinator for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "When the fire started in OC they told me, 'We want to help but we don't know how.'"

Meanwhile, Homeland Security announced in May that in the event of an emergency evacuation the announcement mentioned hurricanes, but presumably this would apply to any emergency law enforcement agencies will continue to man immigration checkpoints along California's highways, and would verify evacuees' citizenship before allowing them to board buses out of the emergency zone. Anyone without papers would be evacuated straight to an ICE detention facility.

I think all this says quite a bit about where we're at in terms of immigration in America.

-Joshua Holland
Editor, Immigration Special Coverage