The Undocumented 9/11: Service Workers, Ground Zero Cleaners & New York’s ‘Immigration Crackdown’
Martha Guerrero, PhD Student in History, Yale University
September 11, 2001 was the final workday of thousands of undocumented immigrant laborers from Mexico, Central America, and a few other Global South nations. Most of the migrants killed on 9/11 were employed across a sprawling food service industry that spanned high-end eateries, chain restaurants, grocery stores, and food delivery. Others worked cleaning buildings, guarding lobbies, and rendering several key services to Lower Manhattan’s working professionals. Despite their ubiquitous presence as low-wage workers, undocumented immigrants were among the most overlooked and undercounted casualties of the 2001 terrorist attacks. In turn, survivors experienced stark unemployment, economic displacement, and anti-immigrant backlash. Amid rising xenophobia and calls for tougher immigration enforcement, the federally-subsidized Ground Zero cleanup relied heavily on undocumented workers, with an estimated 10,000 migrants helping clear Ground Zero and clean nearby buildings. In the wake of 9/11, the lax surveillance of immigrant-dense workplaces and weak policing of undocumented workers contrasted sharply with public calls to deport “illegal aliens” from the United States, a group seen as not too different from foreign-born terrorists. This article challenges the standard narrative of an increasingly restrictive immigration crackdown by tracing the understudied history of New York’s unauthorized immigrant workers, who continued to be employed before, during, and after 9/11.
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Register and Request PaperAbout the Borderlands and Latino/a Studies Seminar Series
This seminar provides a forum for works-in-progress that explore topics in Latino/a and Borderlands studies. The seminar’s co-sponsors are Indiana University’s Latino Studies Program, Northwestern University’s Program in Latina and Latino Studies, The Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the Center for Latino Research at DePaul University, the Katz Center for Mexican Studies at the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago Latin American and Latino Studies Program.