Gulf Coast lures migrants.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2005 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: William E. Gibson and Ihosvani Rodriguez

GULFPORT, Miss. _ There's gold along the storm-wracked Gulf Coast, where jobs are plentiful, pay is good and billions of dollars of reconstruction aid are practically dripping from the trees.

At least that's what some labor contractors are telling migrant and foreign workers, who are coming to the devastated fields and construction sites from as far away as Florida and Mexico.

But like the fabled streets paved with gold of immigration lore, the promising job market along the Gulf Coast can be illusory. While opportunities abound, many workers are finding a harsh and inhospitable environment, according to their advocates from Florida.

"There's not any housing, even for the people who are from there," said Tirso Moreno, director of The Farmworker Association of Florida, who toured coastal Mississippi to assess working conditions. "Some labor contractors will bring our people up for two or three weeks of work and then leave them there. Sometimes they are paid too little and sometimes not at all. There's nothing they can do to fight it."

Seventeen migrant workers from Fort Pierce, Fla., learned recently that two weeks of hard work does not always translate into promised pay.

The men had left construction jobs on...

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