It is about 8:30 a.m., just days after superstorm Sandy unleashed her force and fury in the northeast. Men with calloused hands, world-weary lined faces that make them seem years older than they are, practically stand on their toes in the lot of a closed gas station on the exit ramp off Route 46 in New Jersey. Each time a car slows, pulling into the lot, they swarm around it. “How many do you need?” they ask the drivers. “What kind of work is it?” These are day laborers, nearly all of them undocumented immigrants, who are helping to clean up and rebuild New Jersey and New York after the storm that left power lines down, homes and buildings flooded, sidings contorted ,and trees lying across roadways, or atop cars and roofs. Estimates put the damage caused by Sandy at roughly $45 billion. Usually, there are upwards of 100 laborers waiting on the corners in this square-mile town that has access to many of the highways that lead to all parts of the state and to Manhattan…
Share this post