CNN.com - Study: Katrina rebuilding exploits illegals - Jun 7, 2006

CNN.com - Study: Katrina rebuilding exploits illegals - Jun 7, 2006: "June 7, 2006; Posted: 8:04 a.m. EDT (12:04 GMT)

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- They are the backbone of post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction: Workers who converge at dawn and wait to be picked up for 14-hour shifts of hauling debris, ripping out drywall and nailing walls.

But because many are in the country illegally, immigrant workers rebuilding New Orleans are especially vulnerable to exploitation, according to a study released Tuesday by professors at Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley.

The illegal immigrants often work in hazardous conditions without protective gear and earn far less than their legal counterparts, the study said. Nearly one-third of the illegal immigrants interviewed by researchers reported working with harmful substances and in dangerous conditions, while 19 percent said they were not given any protective equipment.

Illegal immigrants also were paid significantly less -- if at al"