'Every day is a fresh hell' for undocumented domestic workers in a world turned upside down by coronavirus

PHILADELPHIA — They were supposed to be like family. But they broke up — for now at least — by text.Ping. Ping. Ping. The messages popped up on Maria del Carmen Diaz’s phone, one after the other. All worded similarly: “Don’t come to work because of the coronavirus. Stay home. … We’re home and can’t go to work. … When this passes, we’ll see what happens.”Within the span of just a few days last month, del Carmen Diaz, 54, lost all 25 of her cleaning and nanny jobs. She’d worked for most of the families for more than 20 years, one generation after the other, ever since she came to Philadelphia fr...

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