On the first day of volunteering with the People’s Organizing Committee/Workers’ Center for Racial Justice here in New Orleans, we spent the day in the lower Ninth Ward in the neighborhoods just under the infamous levee. Our headquarters is a gutted, Baptist Church the residents are restoring. We meet there every day. On day one, we met with members of the Surivivor’s Network and learned about our assignments. Immediately, I was struck by the inadequacy of the previous levee, which stood only four feet high. The new, replacement “levee” is a mere 12 feet high and about a foot thick. It would not withstand a category 5 hurricane. The locals who have returned to live like squatters in their own homes (because the city will not turn on electricity or maintain the sewage system since Katrina…and there are precious few FEMA trailers scattered about) tell us developers visit often. They feel the city is encouraging the residents to stay away and are purposefully leaving the structures uninhabitable so owners will be forced to sell to wealthy developers. The Ninth’s population is mostly Black and poor and has a high concentration of homeowners, which the residents explained is a rare combination in the U.S. They feel the State is taking advantage of Katrina to permanently “rid the city” of this population to make way for more lucrative development of the area. Walking around the neighborhoods, it reminded me of a nice, working class suburb in San Jose. The houses varied in size, had land and space around them…the schools were clustered together…I saw bike trails, places where kids must have played after school, churches. Now it is a ghost town. I felt like I was in an area a war had passed through. There were bleached sea shells scattered all over from the flooding that look like little piles of bone and add to the abandoned feeling of the area.
My work here is very fulfilling. I am working on a budding law suit on behalf of guest workers brought in from Mexico who came with hb2 visas and passports, but once they arrived, their documents were confiscated and they became trafficked slaves. US recruiters go to Latin America and as far away as India, promising high paying welding, construction, etc., jobs in the rebuilding of New Orleans. The workers are promised 18 dollars an hour, housing, documentation, etc. They are encouraged to accrue debt for travel costs and a “recruiting fee.” Once they arrive, they are taken out of New Orleans to small towns, where they are paid very little and put to work in car washes, factories, etc. When they protest, they are threatened. Because their passports are taken, they cannot leave. This is yet another unfortunate “side effect” of Hurricane Katrina. Another SCU student and I have been asked to go to one of these small towns for a day or 2 where the Department of Justice is investigating the alleged trafficking. We are hoping our schedules and other obligations (read: homework!) can be juggled so we can go. Our task there would be to interview workers.
I have always loved New Orleans. It has so much history, both noble and marred, and so much character. And perseverance. I feel blessed to be here, to be of use, and to see the aftermath of Katrina with my own eyes. This is the kind of work I love to do. Everyone here says to us “Tell our stories – tell your friends and your classmates and the world what it is really like here, how we are surviving, who is helping us and who left us behind.” It is a request I will do my best to fulfill.
here are some links to articles about the trafficking issue (I haven’t seen them yet, so I hope these links work):
http://www.nathanielturner.com/katrinasurvivorsandimmigrantworkersunitetoarrestslaveowner.htm
http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6097182&nav=menu66_3
Best wishes,
Lorraine Sachiko
