Posted on 08/04/2005 11:22:24 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
FARMINGVILLE, N.Y. (AP) - This middle-class Long Island community an hour from New York City and 2,000 miles from the Mexican border has become an unlikely flashpoint in the national debate over illegal immigration, with Hispanics beaten, harassed and evicted in recent weeks.
For more than a decade, immigrants from Mexico or Central America have been drawn to Long Island by the prospect of jobs. Many stand on street corners in Farmingville, waiting for contractors, landscapers and others to offer them a day's work at about $10 an hour. Then at night they go back to their illegally overcrowded single-family homes.
The immigrants, many of whom are believed to have entered the country illegally, have been source of tension among longtime residents since at least the late 1990s, but things have gotten worse this summer - so bad that the head of the Mexican Consulate in New York City said Farmingville was "clearly a red zone after the Arizona border" in the abuse of immigrants.
In late June, two men were charged with a hate crime for allegedly berating a Mexican woman and her husband as the couple backed their van out of a parking lot. Within weeks, two more suspects were arrested and accused of yelling racial epithets and throwing a beer bottle at a Hispanic day laborer.
That same day, four people demonstrating at a 7-Eleven in support of day laborers were arrested when they surrounded an anti-immigration protester's car and refused to let him out.
Police are also investigating an attack in nearby Patchogue on a 61-year-old Ecuadorean man. He was beaten by three men who supposedly asked if he had a green card.
The tension was ratcheted up in mid-June, when officials in the town of Brookhaven, which includes Farmingville, and Suffolk County police began evicting men from overcrowded houses, citing health and safety violations. Dozens of people were jammed into the tiny one-family homes.
So far, at least six houses have been shut by authorities - including three last Friday - leaving more than 100 men homeless, advocates said.
Advocates claimed the immigrants have been thrown into the streets without warning. One advocate called it "ethnic cleansing."
"Many local officials have punted, saying this is a federal issue and we can't do anything about it. Well, there are some things you can do," Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy responded. "Crack down on those contractors, crack down on illegal housing and create a better relationship with immigration officials."
Levy complained that it is the Mexican government's "failed policies, both economically and otherwise, that have been pushing millions of his residents over the border for a better life in America."
Arturo Sarukhan, head of the Mexican Consulate in New York City, agreed that Mexico needs to solve its economic problems so that its citizens do not leave for a better life in America. But he said officials on Long Island must realize that the day laborers are here to stay and "there is a need to work together."
"At the end of the day, they may or may not like it, but it is the reality," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Town of Brookhaven estimated there are 150 houses, each with dozens of suspected illegal workers, in Farmingville, though some landlords have pre-emptively evicted some tenants for fear of trouble with the law.
"If they're going to throw anybody out of an apartment, they have to give them time," said Carlos Tenorio, a 26-year-old day laborer from Mexico City who has been in Farmingville for about nine months. "These people are not the cause of the problem."
Farmingville saw immigration-related violence a few years ago. In 2000, two Mexican men were beaten by two locals who promised them work. On the Fourth of July 2003, a Mexican family barely escaped with their lives after teens set their house ablaze by shooting fireworks through a window. But tensions appeared to ease after three of the assailants were sent to prison - two of them for 25 years to life.
Residents are largely cheering the crackdown on immigrants.
"I think they are doing a terrific job," said Terry Sherwood, who complained that residents in the jammed houses often drink late into the night and urinate and defecate on lawns and backyards. "I don't care who they are, what color they are. I don't care where they come from. Why should people have to live this way?"
Lisa Marino placed a Mexican flag on her front lawn in solidarity with the workers but also applauded efforts by officials to curb illegal housing.
"There's a lack of assimilation," she said of the workers. "You don't leave garbage out, you don't whistle at neighbors. They need to understand that, but by keeping them marginalized, they don't learn that."
Nadia Marin-Molina, an advocate for the day laborers, understands the concerns expressed by neighbors, but insisted "it's a two-way street."
"Some of these same people who are complaining are the people who benefit from the work these guys do," she said. "Because every house has landscaping done, or has to have some job done on their roof, or some painting done."
From 12-19 I worked as a laborer for a fence company mixing cement and digging holes.
You're NOT alone....as you can see. I saw that post a few days ago about the nightmare of your rental property. Incredible..
Give credit to Steve Levy - the Dem county executive - who is at least doing something about this.
I'd suggest you get off the net and start calling local churches. There ARE people there who DO need the money.
Doesn't matter which church, pick one.
Well, real friends help each other out when it's needed... but if it's business-related (as rental properties are), then there are plenty of places to find unskilled labor. How about a college? Electronic market? Phone book? Hire a superintendent if you have a lot of such business? There have got to be places to get that sort of help, even on an ad hoc basis, without resorting to the subsidization of justly illegal activity.
Temp agencies?
great minds ;-)
Turn him in; call the state employment agency, the IRS, AND the ICE.
I would but i have an unlegally zoned apt. and we watch each others backs on that. He has one also.
BTW i am already taxed up the wazoo on this property, our home and one day it will be all ours. We are talking I already pay over 10 k and it could go up even more and that is insane.
>>The best solution to this problem is for all the "newcomers"
to be moved into the same neighborhoods in which the
members of The Times' editorial board live.<<
And the neighborhoods of those politicians that have all but ignored this ever escalating problem.
Alisa, are the illegals spread out all over Nassau County? Or do the powers that be keep them segregated in Hempstead, Roosevelt, & Freeport? Just curious (haven't lived on the Island since 1990, unless you count Brooklyn).
Rod....I think I understand some of your points. I also believe much of the time you hinge your rebuttal/argument on the sometimes "racist" tone...that comes out in this debate. I don't like that either...but I understand it.
But..( here's the butt-monkey..hehe ) I watched illegal labor nearly take over the dry wall installation business in SoCal. Generally the owner's were American born...mostly Hispanic in origin..but hired illegal alien labor. Same thing happened in some plumbing, concrete finishing, labor intensive jobs...
Those weren't "the job's nobody else wanted".
There's some real hard feelings about that there....and I think this issue isn't going to go away quietly.
FWIW-
No it isn't. One can imagine what it will be like by 2008, when there are another 7,000,000 in the country. That's only a few short years away.
They are still segregated however say you hire someone to do your roof...that guy brings a bunch of Mexicans..and then you can rehire the mexicans to come do some work on their own. That is what my neighbor did. I havent seen it in over a year by me but all the landscapers have a a few Mexicans with them.
WE DO OUR OWN YARD and it looks mighty fine : ))))
In short, to hell with the law!
FYI Lisa. If LI succeeds in getting rid of 'em, so might the rest of NY.
Don't have a yard, just a narrow balcony where I wave hello to my neighbors across the way.
The feds violate the 4th amendment for the average US citizen but don't dare profile based upon 30+ years of terrorism yet we keep sending them our money.
The USSC says private property can be transfered to another private developer if it will generate more revenue yet we keep sending them our money.
We no longer have a functioning 1st amendment because anything which may offend some defective low life spawn it is hate speech even if it is true yet we still send them our money.
If anyone is still reading this, where will we ever draw the line on this dysfunctional US government? If you wait until there is no more 2nd amendment it will be too late.
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