Douglas Miguel Rodriguez did not always make sandwiches and stock shelves at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City.

Thousands of miles away, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, his hometown, Mr. Rodriguez was a middle-class family man who worked as a financial manager for an insurance company, his brother, William Rodriguez Barzola, said.

But he lost his job when the company went under and Mr. Rodriguez, struggling financially, moved to New Jersey with his wife and daughter.

His lack of English proved a barrier to a white-collar job in his adopted home, his brother said, so he had to settle for whatever he could get to pay his bills.