N.O. now dependent on illegal Latino immigrant labor

Newhouse:

"The sudden rush of Latino immigrant workers to the Gulf Coast in Katrina's aftermath has thrown into sharp relief the existence of an identifiable worker caste, a class of people at once economically essential and socially marginal. It is a national corps of day laborers, and what is happening here provides a glimpse of its inner workings.

It turns on a dime at the whisper of a dollar. Its members, alone or in crews, follow the jobs. They are drawn by word of mouth, dispatched by a nationwide network of staffing agencies, or corralled and deployed by the sometimes shadowy cadre of job brokers and construction subcontractors who provide the link -- and the layers of deniability -- between reputable businesses and the underground economy."