Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance?

Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance?

They say that what goes around comes around--and it appears to be true in the case of Suffolk County's lead Latino immigrant antagonizer Steve Levy.

It's well established that Steve Levy uses the power of his office to harass his county's most vulnerable residents: non citizen Latino immigrants. He's gotten away with his tactics thus far because none of the mostly white suburban--Republican and Democratic--politicians have had the courage or conviction to stand up to the populist bully.

That's why it was welcomed news when state legislators from his own party, appalled by his cheap nativistic tactics, sent Levy a message to back off or else.

A group of 30 state Assembly members joined in an effort to denounce Levy for inciting anti-immigrant sentiment. Recognizing yet another opportunity to stroke the local Knownothing chord, Levy basically told group of African American and Latino urban representatives to take a hike.

But Levy is counting on the state's legislature--among other favors--to renew a hike in the local sales tax. Apparently, that'll ensure an additional $500 million in funds to spend from a nearly $3 billion county spending budget.

The problem for Levy is that nativism in a state like New York doesn't go over very well with most Democrats--especially those representing districts of color. Additionally, Democrats control the statehouse and the legislature's lower chamber--and the minority caucus has a great deal of influence at both levels.

So Levy the bully needs the votes of the very legislators who are most opposed to his tactics against vulnerable immigrants of color.

The way New York operates permission to raise a local (or any) tax will happen. However, it'll be interesting to see how things play out between Levy and the group of minority state legislators. Levy has told the legislators this week to shove it.

In time we'll see exactly who ends up shoving it.

In the interim, one specific place to watch for a local response to the stand-off is in the re-election bid of Assemblyman Phil Ramos-- Suffolk's only minority state representative and a member of the group of 30. With the backing of the local Democrat, Republican, Conservative and the Independence parties, Levy could seek to toppled Ramos.

My guess is that Levy will find some way to appease the legislators, get his sales tax increase and continue stoking the chord.

Stay tuned.

Levy livid as Albany stalls tax (Newsday - 6.22.07) and
NY State Democrats Denounce Steve Levy's Anti-Immigrant Policies (American Taino - 5.08.07)

Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance? Part 5: Sharks vs Jets

Rick Brand of NewsDay has some of the inside story (Suffolk's Levy claims 'set up' in sales-tax holdup - 7.1.07) to the deal between Steve Levy and the Assembly minority caucus to establish a hiring hall in Suffolk County in exchange for the continuation of a sales tax.

It appears that Sheldon Silver called Levy to tell him that the minority caucus was not on board with the sales tax extension unless he agreed to a state-sponsored hiring hall. Levy tells Silver that if the state does the hall then there's nothing he could do about it. Done. Silver believes he has a deal and that gets communicated to the caucus. The deal gets leaked, making Levy look like, well, a politician. Levy hold multiple press conferences in which he denies the No Deal Deal.

The latest twist is that Levy is now claiming it was a clever set-up--although he doesn't say by whom.

Suffolk assemblyman and caucus member, Philip Ramos, insists that the caucus was told that Levy agreed to the deal--and questions his political motivation for all of his protestations . He said,"I don't believe Levy wants a solution. ... If the caucus gets the day laborers off the street, Steve Levy loses a big part of his political identity."

So that's the background to the No Deal Deal. Again, it's New York politics.

But here's the intriguing part of Brand's article. He quotes Desmond Ryan, a veteran Albany lobbyist, as saying that the dispute could widen to the ranks of unions, wary of hiring halls for day laborers. "Unions see it as a direct assault on members' jobs," he said.

Of course, the role of unions in this issue--and in so much of what goes on in Suffolk County politics--has been a major part of the untold story. The truth is that unions are powerful in Suffolk--very powerful AND very white. And they don't much care for newcomers. A great deal of the hostility directed at day laborers comes from the unions. And Levy's opposition to the undocumented is mostly about protecting union turf.

However, it's an old story: Politicians protecting the turf of powerful and very white unions. Undocumented workers are only the most recent group that the unions and their politicians have sought to freeze out. Samething has happened with African American, Latino, Asian and other workers. Anybody that comes into the market and seeks employment in unionized or related industries is going to find themselves kicked back.

Brand also includes a not so subtle threat from Richard Schaffer, Suffolk Democratic Party Boss, to Ramos. He says that the placement of the state's hiring hall will be controversial (and no doubt he's in position to make sure it is), and he wonders whether Ramos is OK with it going into his district. And Schaffer and the unions arethiclose.

It's now starting to look like the prelude to a rumble between the sharks and the Jets. Levy has brought forward his gang: local politicians, the party boss and the unions. Ramos has the minority caucus. The only trouble for Ramos is that he's largely alone in shark territory--and the sharks are looking to put a hurt on him.

Read the Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance? series.

Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance? Part 2

The tabling by State Assembly Democrats of a Suffolk County sales tax hike is being viewed as a stinging rebuke to Steve Levy, who has made combating illegal immigration a central theme of his administration.

Here's what county legislator, former Assemblyman and Levy ally, Thomas Barraga (R-West Islip), said about the Assembly's unprecedented move: "It has to be very embarrassing for the county executive."

Well, I'm not sure it's all that embarrassing to Steve Levy. As a former wrestler with a napoleanic complex, it seems to me that Levy loves the contact. His instinct? To pin the opponent--and without an actual challenger to his county crown, the opponent is now local Assemblyman Phil Ramos. And he's called Ramos out.

Threatening "draconian cuts," and laying the blame squarely on Ramos, Levy jabs that "[i]t won't be pretty--and it's all going to be on Ramos".

To make clear that Levy relies on stroking the nativist chord, his ally county legislator Joseph Carracappa (R-Selden) threw this low blow to the Assembly's Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Caucus, Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat:

"There is no room for compromise. You don't negotiate with terrorists and that's basically what this guy is."

Espaillat's response: "Those are very strong words. I'm very discouraged that that kind of rhetoric is happening in Suffolk. It doesn't lead to healing, and it doesn't lead to the solution of any problems."

The good news is that Levy the Bully now has to deal with people his own size--politically speaking. And that should bode well for all New Yorkers.

Stay tuned for the next installment.

See Levy battles, but Suffolk may pay in taxes and Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance?

Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance? Part 3: The Outline of a Deal

The battle between the State Legislature’s black and Hispanic caucus and the Suffolk County executive, Steve Levy, who has crusaded against illegal immigration, intensified on Monday when he warned of mass layoffs, tax increases and cuts in county programs unless they can resolve an impasse over immigration and sales taxes.

The flare-up erupted when the caucus successfully pushed to table the continuation of a sales tax for Suffolk County. Accusing Levy of raising racial tensions in Suffolk County through his harsh treatment of undocumented Latino workers, the caucus insists on trading the sales tax for a state-sponsored hiring hall to be opened in Suffolk County. The caucus believed it had a deal, but Levy denies that he would ever entertain such a thing.

But just as quickly, it appeared that both sides are looking for a way out of their unprecedented predicament.

Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns, chairman of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus: “It was never our intention to cause the citizens of Suffolk a hardship.”

County Executive Levy: “We don’t have the authority” to ban hiring halls that do not involve county land or money. “A county level of government cannot dictate what happens at another level. Reasonable minds can differ on the issue of hiring halls and immigration.”

So it looks as though both sides my be getting what they really want: Levy gets his sales tax and the opportunity to say that he beat back the minority legislators, and the caucus gets Levy to say that it stood-up to Levy and got him to agree not to disrupt the establishment of a state-sponsored hiring hall.

Question. But who has Phil Ramos' back?

Also read LEVY VS. CAUCUS A $300M MESS? and Immigration Dispute May Force Tax Increase in Suffolk.

Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance? Part 7: Levy as Chicken Little

We last reported that the "NO Deal Deal" had been struck and that Suffolk County Executive would get his $300 million sales tax in exchange for a hands-off policy in regards to any state-funded hiring hall.

Assembly big shot Sheldon Silver promised that the required vote would take place in September when members return from vacation.

So everything is just fine in a New York sort of way--until up pops Levy. Until....

Never one to leave things alone, the hyperactive Levy declares that he's being forced to cut $8.8 million from the county budget, including postponing the new police recruits class.

Levy either doesn't trust his old colleague Sheldon Silver's word or he's simply taking the opportunity to squeeze the last bastion of resistance to his growing dictatorship.

However, this recent act by Levy prompted Assemblyman Philip Ramos (D-Brentwood) to label him "Chicken Little" for claiming "the sky is falling."

Of course, Chicken Little was right that the sky was falling in the recent movie. Well, not the sky but Alien Invaders. No wonder Levy is so obsessed with fighting aliens.

See Levy won't wait for Silver's Sept. promise.

Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance? Part 4: The No Deal Deal

All the major players--Steve Levy, Speaker Sheldon Silver, the minority caucus and now, Governor Spitzer--are all on board with the deal.

The Deal?

Levy shuts up and allows the state to establish a hiring hall for day laborers somewhere in Suffolk County, and the minority caucus gives its OK to the re-authorization of a Suffolk County sales tax.

That's the deal.

Oh, Levy was in Albany for "personal" business. I take that to mean that he was being enlightened beyond the tool shed kept by state Democrats just for such instances.

Apparently, also part of the deal is that Levy is allowed to continue claiming that there's no deal.
Call it the "No Deal Deal" Wink, wink. Hey, it's New York politics.

I'd love to know if laying off of Assemblyman Phil Ramos was part of the No Deal Deal?

Read Levy will lay low on issues to ease standoff and Spitzer Weighs In on Suffolk Dispute — and Aqueduct’s Future.

Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance? Part 6: Levy's Plea

It's reported in today's Newsday that Steve Levy has sent a 2 page letter pleading with the state legislature to pass legislation authorizing $300 million sales tax. He warns that he'll be forced to layoff scores of government workers and the the local hospitals will be "deluged with patients" if the tax is not immediately adopted.

The ploy is supposed to pull at the heart strings of state legislators, but the case is being made by a guy who has been methodically dismantling the county's social safety net.

Nonprofit contract agencies which the county relies on to provide critical services to county residents have been subject to a campaign by Levy to wring 100s of millions of dollars in savings that otherwise would go to services. Many of the agencies are on the brink of closing as a result.

I suspect that the state legislators are well aware of Levy's irresponsible stewardship, so his pleas probably sound quite hollow.

See Levy pleads to extend Suffolk sales tax.

Steve Levy Begs for Visas

A poster boy for America's anti-immigrant codes movement, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy is now begging the federal government to issue loads of temporary worker visas.

Why? Because many businesses in Suffolk County, New York depend on temporary foreign labor--and they face financial ruin without access to that labor pool.

Keeping the East End's tourism industry healthy is important to local officials because of its economic impact. According to the Long Island Convention & Visitors Bureau, tourism on Long Island is a $4.3 billion industry that generates 38,000 jobs and about $69 million in sales taxes.

However, Levy has not received a response from the federal government--and he may not.

A leading critic of the Bush administration's so-called "open borders policy", Levy now expects the U.S. Labor Department to bail him out with loads of expedited visas.

Are the chickens coming home to roost?

The result of Colorado's own anti-immigrant codes legislation is that businesses there have been crippled as well. And its agribusinesses are being told by government to use unproductive and dangerous prison chain gangs for labor.

If Levy follows Colorado's lead he'll soon be proposing to use the county's imprisoned child molesters, thieves and rapists to attend to the needs of summer vacationers. And he'll claim that it'll save county tax payers money in the process.

Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb!!!!

Set hiring site for laborers

Set hiring site for laborers: Suffolk, foundations should work together on day-worker problem (Newsday Editorial, Long Island, New York - 4.6.07)

For the moment, there's a lull in Suffolk County in the rhetoric over the issue of immigrant day workers. The latest ineffectual piece of legislation in the county legislature has fallen by the wayside. This moment of calm might be the right time to begin rethinking a long-rejected idea for easing the problem in Farmingville: creating a hiring site.

County Executive Steve Levy has been adamant that the county cannot use taxpayer money to pay for a site that would be used by illegal immigrants. But nothing else has worked. There are still day workers standing on streets in Farmingville, waiting for contractors to offer them jobs.

Most recently, the legislature voted down a proposal designed to keep the immigrants off county roads in the area, on the theory that they are causing accidents by darting into the streets. Clearly, a majority of the legislators saw this approach as flawed. Even if it passed constitutional muster, it would only have moved the workers to town roads.

The bill's sponsor, Legis. Jack Eddington (WFP-Medford), says that something good may yet come from the controversy that his proposal ignited. One hopeful sign is the willingness of the Island's private philanthropic sector to put up some funding for a hiring site. But foundations can't do it alone, and they want anything they do to be part of a public-private partnership. That means the county has to do something.

Levy's hard-line stance means that the something won't be money. But it could be something else, such as the use of vacant land. Levy should at least explore creative alternatives for putting together a public-private effort, so he can ease the problem without contradicting his often-restated opposition to using taxpayer dollars.

Across the country, as Newsday's Bart Jones has reported, more than 60 hiring sites are in operation. They aren't perfect. Some workers and some contractors will avoid them. But they can get many of the workers off the streets. If Levy really wants to make things better in Farmingville, it's time for him to step back and give this some thought.

NY State Democrats Denounce Steve Levy's Anti-Immigrant Policies

A group of 30 New York State Assembly members are denouncing Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy for inciting anti-immigrant sentiment. The group blasts Levy for selectively going after Latino immigrants in the enforcement of housing codes but leaving white summer home renters alone--a group which is widely known for packing as many as 40 people into a small rental cottages in the Hamptons and Fire Island.

Resolution sponsors include Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat of Manhattan and Assemblyman Phil Ramos of Brentwood in Suffolk County.

Suffolk County Democratic Party leaders are trying to stop the resolution from being debated in the state's lower house.

Meanwhile, the hugely popular Levy is cruising towards an easy re-election in the fall. He's guaranteed Democratic party backing, he's been endorsed of the county's Independence and Conservative parties and the GOP is considering doing the same.

More

Immigrants: New Haven Embraces; Suffolk County Condemns

While Steve Levy is leading the effort to crack down on immigrant workers in Suffolk County, across the Sound in New Haven, Connecticut, Mayor John Distefano seeks to create a safe haven for immigrants. Democrats both...but Distefano and Levy couldn't be more different.

Levy seeks to rid the county of undocumented immigrant workers, which he believes adds to the cost of government and destroy the quality of life. Distefano sees immigrants as hardworking neighbors that should be embraced.

Each is doing what he believes is best for the community. However, one is right and one is dead wrong.

Read Jennifer Medina's New Haven Welcomes a Booming Population of Immigrants, Legal or Not (NYTimes, March5, 2007).

Suffolk's Leader Wins a Following

In Suffolk’s Leader Wins a Following (NYTimes - 6.13.07), Paul Vitello writes that Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has won a national following by targeting undocumented immigrant workers.

However, Latinos and immigrant leaders on Long Island and beyond are less impressed. Instead, immigrants advocates accuse him of bigotry; one spokesman for local day laborers, the Rev. Allan Ramirez, has accused him of “ethnic cleansing.”

Fellow Democrat Vivian Viloria-Fisher, a Suffolk County legislator who was born in the Dominican Republic complains that Levy conveniently ignores "the global economic rules that force people to come here to earn a living.”

Nonetheless, the largest daily on Long Island calls him arguably the most formidable elected official in Long Island history. Levy's views so strongly resonate with the absurdly overtaxed residents that none of the major (or minor) political parties is willing to field a challenger in this year's county executive race.

Photo: NYTimes

LI Latino Immigrants: Codebreakers

According to Reluctant Neighbors (Canvas - July Issue), relations between ethnic groups on Long Island [New York] haven’t always been happy.

Here’s how they stand now.

A cross is burned in the yard of an interracial couple.

In a nearby town a Haitian immigrant also opens his door to face a flaming crucifix.

Two Mexican men are kidnapped, taken to a warehouse and beaten within an inch of their lives. One nearly loses his hand from the knife attack he endures.

Elsewhere, a Latino man is whipped by his employer for not working hard enough.
A hanging noose is strung up in the management area of a factory in order to warn African-American employees to keep out.

It is a catalog of abuse that we’ve come to associate with places like the Deep South in the years before civil rights. But those real-life incidents didn’t happen 50 years ago below the Mason-Dixon Line. They all happened within the past few
years.

And all in New York's Long Island.

Strict racial and class segregation, as well as institutionalized racism, are part and parcel of life on Long Island. African Americans and Native Americans live America's version of Apartheid here, regulated through an endless maze of local codes and customs. The Bantustans (such as Roosevelt, Hempstead, Wyandanch, Brentwood and Shinnecock) feature crowded housing, poor government services and failing public schools. And minority enclaves lack political representation due to the use of at-large election districts.

It's through this historical racial and class frame that anti-Latino immigrant pograms are properly understood. Long Island's historic minorities--African Americans and Native Indians--have been oppressed for so long--with violence and local laws deployed to keep them in their place. And always the demand that they suffer quietly.

That racist legacy is in part why the influx of Latinos into Long Island has sparked such a negative reaction. Latinos, particularly their more visible day worker variety, are seen as wantonly breaking the island's race and class rules. Unable or unwilling to abide by elements of the code, Latinos are guilty of upsetting the status quo--and for that they're being punished.

Latino disobedience is why island politicians Peter King and Steve Levy have been given free reign in the use of governmental force (and then some) to sanction the Latino code breakers. Witness how a majority of white Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, have closed ranks behind King and Levy as enforcers of the code.

Don’t Look to Democrats for Immigrant Rights

Latinos Democrats looking for constructive change on the issue of immigration should pay close attention to what Roberto Lovato is saying in Don't Look to Democrats for Immigrant Rights (New America Media, October 31, 2007).

Lovato's point? That Democrats may not have the stomach to fight the good fight on behalf of immigration reform.

Nativism sells in the current anti-immigrant environment--and it sells just as well for Democrats as it does for Republicans. Consider the popularity of New York's Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy. A popular Democrat, Levy is about to win re-election with upwards of 95% of the vote.

The evidence? Not only links Hillary's equivocating on immigrant licenses during last night's debate to honcho Rahm Emmanual's declaration that immigration is the new third rail, but also to Bill Clinton and his post-Oklahoma bombing efforts at what some call "crimmigration”, the criminalization of immigration.

The bottomeline? The GOP is horrendous and getting worse on Latino immigration, but the Democrats may be no better--and could be worse.

Phil Ramos: Fighting the Good Fight on L.I.

The NYTimes did a nice write-up on Phil Ramos, Suffolk County's minority member of the NYS Assembly.

A single father of twin girls and former police officer, Ramos is the only politician willing to stand-up to Steve Levy and his nativist politics.

“It’s about trying to do the right thing even if it is unpopular at first,” says Mr. Ramos, who keeps a crucifix and a rosary on his desk to remind him of his grandfather’s words.

True leaders are not defined by the number of photo ops and press releases they churn out, but what they do when times are tough or the issue is unpopular.

Ramos taking on Suffolk's leading bully, Ramos is demonstrating that he is a true leader.

Read: A L.I. Assemblyman Learns to Work the System (by Robin Finn, NYTimes - 6.29.07)
Is Levy Getting His Comeuppance? series on American Taíno.

Immigrants contribute to LI's economy

Ray Keating, the conservative voice columnist for Newsday, writes positively about the economic contributions of the island's Latino immigrants.

What's interesting is that Keating has written nice things about Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's fiscal management. But Levy's the guy that's costing island businesses and residents tons of money by chasing away necessary immigrant labor. For example, businesses in the Hamptons are hurting because they can't get the labor they need.

Can you really be a great fiscal manager of government as well as the local chief immigrant harrasser?

Excerpts:

To sum up, the authors estimated that the Latino population in Nassau and Suffolk had a total economic impact of $5.7 billion in 2004, including helping to create more than 52,000 jobs. The economic pie grew.

Latinos directly or indirectly generated $925 million in revenue for local governments in 2004, while costing Long Island localities $723 million. That comes out to a net positive contribution to local government of $614 per Latino resident.

What does this all mean? Locally, it's time for some groups to stop kicking around immigrants, and instead start recognizing the role they play in keeping Long Island's economy afloat. Common-sense economics and basic human decency dictate welcoming immigrants and aiding their assimilation.

More

Making The Case for Long Island's Latino Immigrants

While Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's Archie Bunker-styled politics have made him wildly popular among white working class voters, a small but growing number of Long Islanders believe we can reach higher.

One such individual is Amy Hagedorn, a life-long area resident and philanthropist. She has funded Long Island Wins, a campaign making the case--economically and culturally--for the island's immigrants.

As part of this unprecedented campaign, Long Island Wins has begun airing pro-immigrant commercials on local television. The first commercial "Salida Del Sol" makes the case that America is enriched as a result of immigrants and their pursuit of the American Dream.



The second commercial "Pupusas" uses lighthearted humor to celebrate the economic and cultural contributions of Long Island's Latino immigrants.

Inside the Immigration Maze

Inside the Immigration Maze, With No Answers (by Peter Applebome of The NYTimes - 3.7.07)

FARMINGVILLE, N.Y. Like a stranger in a strange land, Carlos Morales, a 26-year-old day laborer who came to Long Island six years ago from Mexico, is a perceptive observer of the suburban terrain where he works, goes to school and dreams of a better life.

So as he rides the bus or walks to Suffolk County Community College, past the mysterious signs reading “Rose Riot” (that’s a $7.99-a-dozen sale) or recruiting youths for lacrosse, as he observes the women in their big S.U.V.s and the hostile glares when he enters non-Latino businesses, he takes note of many things.

There are the kids tossing bottles or tomatoes at immigrant workers from passing cars. There are the men who, he insists, protest illegal immigration at night and then turn around and hire the same laborers by day. There’s the policeman who stopped him on the street and demanded to know what was in his backpack (schoolbooks) and who photographs immigrant workers for a running dossier.

There’s the 12-year-old boy he can’t get out of his head, who, when asked by a television interviewer what he thought of immigrant workers, answered, “I hate them.”
But sitting the other day at the Paisa Pan Colombian bakery with a beef empanada and a cup of coffee, he could not begin to figure out the maze that is immigration policy in America.

After all, he lives in a place where the county executive, Steve Levy, has made a national reputation for himself as an outspoken critic of illegal immigration and last week called for a crackdown in the county, including antiloitering legislation and the assignment of federal immigration officials to the county jail, the better to deport people who are here illegally.

At the same time Mr. Morales knows that other communities, mostly larger than Farmingville, like Newark, Trenton and New Haven, have formally or informally set themselves up as safe havens for immigrants, where workers are welcome whether they are here legally or not.

And then there are the Minutemen, the self-appointed border patrol that seems to him a throwback to vigilante justice in Texas 100 years ago.

It is as if immigration policy is not a national issue but a local one, like zoning or the school curriculum. New Haven, sí, Danbury, no. Trenton, sí, Freehold, no.
And that, of course, is pretty much the case. It is, after all, entirely possible that immigration has become an issue with so many disparate constituencies and competing economic interests to please that we’ve given up on a solution. Better to muddle along than make hard, unpalatable choices.

“No matter what position you take, someone is not going to like it,” Mr. Morales said.

He is not sure what will work, either. He thinks a just policy would provide legal status for people like him who came illegally but have worked hard, doing jobs Americans often won’t.

But when asked why he should be rewarded ahead of people seeking legal status through available channels, he doesn’t pretend to have an easy answer. He puts himself inside the mind of his neighbors in Suffolk County and can understand some of their unease about this new population of people living in the shadows, working for less.

THIS is how Carlos Morales came to this country. The youngest of eight children, and hoping to support his family, he paid a coyote the enormous sum of $1,500 to cross the Sonoran Desert. The group of immigrants went without water for three days, finally finding a muddy pond on a cattle ranch that was good enough for the cows and good enough for them.

Since arriving here he has worked construction and odd jobs. He fell from a tree doing tree work, hurt his back and is still paying his hospital bills.

He has passed the English as a second language course at Suffolk and is now working on his G.E.D. He hopes to go to college and study photojournalism or political science. He has seen more at 26 than many of us ever do, so he watches the morass of immigration policy and knows at least two things.

First, he says, this is not new. America honors its immigration history in the abstract but often looks with disdain on its newcomers — the Italians, the Irish, the Chinese, the Jews. Now, it’s Hispanics. Second, it will take more than an antiloitering law or bottles and tomatoes to get him to leave. He fought to get here. He’ll fight to stay here.

“I hear people say they have to go back, they have to go back,” he said of immigrants here illegally. “Well, they’re not going to go back. They’re already here. They’re not going to go back to Mexico and live in the same situation they were before. So that’s being realistic. People are not going to go back.”

Immigration panderfest

Immigration panderfest
Suffolk legislators descend into mania in futile effort to solve global problem
(Long Island Newsday - March 12, 2007)

In the past year or two, the Suffolk County Legislature has looked statesmanlike in contrast to the zany events in the Nassau County Legislature. But now, anti-immigrant mania is driving Suffolk lawmakers off the rails. Overnight, they're tumbling from statesmanship into demagoguery.

First, it was an anti-loitering bill, designed to keep the day workers off county roads. At a raucous public hearing last Tuesday, Legis. Elie Mystal (D-Amityville) - a verbal loose cannon - "joked" that he "would load up my gun and start shooting" if large numbers of immigrants gathered near his home. It's not funny. Anti-immigrant talk, even in jest, can lead to violence.

Now Legis. Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches), a former history teacher who should know better, wants the county to stop using the Bank of America, all because of an innocent and legal pilot program in Los Angeles that he construes as aiding illegal immigrants. The bank is serving its customers and following the rules. If some of them are immigrants striving to build a credit rating, that merits praise - not censure.

The essential mismatch is between ill-conceived local laws and the global scope of the problem. Critics of the day workers like to say that they're illegal. Some are. But they got to be illegal because of the nation's inconsistent policy about globalization. We seek complete integration of all the elements of the world economy, such as the flow of goods, capital and services - but not labor. At the same time as trade with Mexico opened up, Princeton sociologist Douglas Massey points out, we have closed down the borders.

Immigration used to be circular. Workers came here, made money and went back to Mexico. Now, our immigration policy has made that homeward flow harder. Those macro policies are the real cause, and breathtakingly dumb local laws like these will do nothing to alter that reality.

It's bad enough that County Executive Steve Levy is the panderer in chief on this issue. The legislature, whose role is to counterbalance the executive, abdicates its responsibility when it tries to demagogue right along with him.

Latino immigrant students pursuing their American dreams (and the teachers that help them)

American Taíno readers know that Suffolk County New York is known for its ugly strain of anti-Latino immigrants. Suffolk is where an immigrant family was burned out of their home; where Steve Levy ordered troopers to evict immigrant workers from their homes in the dead of winter; and the legislature considered making it illegal for Latinos to stand on public sidewalks.

However, in the midst of this harassment life goes on. The truth is that Latino immigrants are truly a hardy bunch. There's not much that xenophobic suburbanites can do to dissuade them from pursuing their dreams. Consider this story by Kate Maier entitled Learning English and Much More: Non-native speakers discover a family atmosphere in the E.S.L. classroom (The East Hampton Star - 6.21.07).

At first glance it's a story about students and their teachers in a tony part of Long Island. But it's really about Latino immigrants leaping over barriers, grabbing hold of their American dreams, and the teachers who guide them.

There's Jorge Gomez who arrived 4 years ago from Ecuador, mastered English and earned a Regents diploma. He's now set to begin classes at the Island Drafting and Technical Institute in Amityville.

Priscila Benenaula, a junior also from Ecuador, didn’t know a word of English when she enrolled at East Hampton High School in May of 2005. A month later, she took Regents exams in global studies and math — and passed them both. She's now editor of the bilingual student magazine and earned a trip to Albany to learn about government.

Johana Carmona arrived from Colombia when she was 15 years old. She's now a graduate of Suffolk Community College, works as an office assistant at her former high school and is taking courses at SUNY Stony Brook.

Ms Carmona husband, whom she met in high school and is also from Colombia, completed high school and is now a graphic designer. She admits that it wasn't easy for him but he persevered and completed his program.

And then there's biology teacher Dr. Lilian Ramzy who was a medical doctor in El Salvador before immigrating to the United States. Her first year at the East Hampton High School, the bilingual biology class had a 100-percent passing rate on the Regents.

And then there are the nonLatino teachers who are examples of our better selves. Billy Dickson teaches mathematics but his other job is building the immigrant students' sense of belonging. Connie Randolph, head of the school's ESL program, expresses admiration for her teachers and fondness for the students. And there's Eva Iacono whose classroom is a haven for immigrant students as they prepare for American lives beyond high school.