New York Wiki

Sachem Quality of Life vs Illegal Aliens

Local opponents of illegal immigration have already started contacting members
of Congress to campaign against the president's plan. Sachem Quality of Life, a
Farmingville group that has been outspoken against illegal immigration, has been
riven by internal disputes, but the two factions of the group are united in their
opposition to Mr. Bush's program.

"He says it would bring in workers as needed, but it's just going to enable
corporations to fire American workers and replace them with foreign workers,"
said Ed Person, leader of one Sachem faction. "President Bush is encouraging
lawbreaking, because illegal aliens will see that they're rewarded for breaking
the law."

Ray Wysolmierski, a leader of the other faction, agreed that the proposed
program would bring more illegal immigrants to the United States.

"Everybody knows what's going to happen," he said. "After three years, they
won't go back and the liberals will all say these people have been paying taxes
and contributing to the economy so it would be a terrible thing to make them go
back, and they'll wind up staying here."

2004 January 18
LONG ISLAND
A Change of Scene?
By VIVIAN S. TOY

EAN-RIGARD LEESSE is a Haitian immigrant who has worked as a maintenance
man at St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church in Garden City for two years.

Officially he is a candidate for political asylum, which allows him to work legally
in the United States, and he hopes to become a legal resident later this month
after an immigration hearing. But before advocates at Catholic Charities, an
agency of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, helped put his asylum case in motion,
he lived nearly a year as an undocumented immigrant. He had strong praise for
the immigration proposal presented by President Bush this month.

"It's a humane action," Mr. Leesse (pronounced lay-ESS) said last week as he
waited to meet with his counselor at Catholic Charities' offices in Amityville.
"America is a good country, but when you live as an illegal here, it is very hard.
It's difficult to get a job or do something to even get an I.D. card or a driver's
license."

The president's plan would offer legal status to millions of illegal workers. He has
stressed that it is not an amnesty program because immigrants would be
required to have a job with a sponsoring employer and would be expected to
return to their home countries after their work periods expired.

Many immigrant advocates have criticized the program for not going far enough,
noting that it only provides temporary worker status for renewable three-year
periods. But Mr. Leesse said: "It's still a good thing. It's better than nothing,
because otherwise you're illegal with no hope at all."

The president's proposal has drawn mixed reviews on Long Island. Immigrants
and their advocates praise it for finally recognizing the need to grant
undocumented immigrants some form of legal status. Employers say they hope it
will make it easier to fill jobs with legal workers. Advocates and employers say it
might reduce the crowds of unemployed immigrant workers at informal
streetcorner gathering places around the Island, where they wait for contractors
to pull up and offer them a day's work.

But opponents of illegal immigration harshly criticize the president's plan and
warn that it will only encourage more illegal immigration and leave less work for
American citizens. The number of workers clamoring for day jobs in major
"shape up" sites in Farmingville, Farmingdale and Freeport will just increase, they
say, and the immigrants' overcrowded living conditions will continue to vex
neighbors and ruin property values. Labor leaders add that they fear that the
program would officially create a class of lower-paid workers that would depress
wages for everyone.

Steve Levy, the new county executive in Suffolk County, which has been home to
acts of anti-immigrant violence that have drawn national attention in recent
years, gave it qualified praise. "I believe that we should be seeking immigrants
through proper legal channels," he said, adding that the program could help
"mitigate the exploitation of workers and put those businesses that are playing
by the rules on a fairer playing field."

But he also criticized the president's proposal as an amnesty program and said,
"I don't think preference should be given to those who have broken the law and
wound up here on Long Island."

Even before he was elected county executive Mr. Levy said he wanted the county
to go after contractors who hire illegal day workers and he opposed creating a
hiring hall for undocumented workers in Farmingville, where protesters still
march six days a week, carrying signs that read: "Deport Illegal Aliens."

Last week, Mr. Levy said he planned to gather interested parties from throughout
the county to develop a plan for dealing with undocumented workers. Within a
few months' time and probably long before the debate over Mr. Bush's proposal
concludes, Mr. Levy said he hoped to have Suffolk County police officers
conducting sting operations "against those employers who are cheating on sales
tax, unemployment and workers compensation." When employers do business
off the books, he said, "Our coffers suffer as a result because taxes don't get
paid and employers who do play by the rules are undercut and can't compete."

Robert Wieboldt, the executive director of the Long Island Builders Association,
said that requiring employers to establish the credentials of their workers would
be a tremendous burden. "The average contractor is not competent to determine
if a green card is real or not," he said. "But if the president's proposal makes it
easier to get certified workers and to establish legality, that's a good thing."

The construction industry on Long Island has long acknowledged that some
contractors use undocumented workers, he said, adding that the president's
program would finally recognize the fact that "there are legitimate labor
shortages that cannot be filled with our local work force."

Mitchell H. Pally, the vice president for government affairs at the Long Island
Association, said the broader business community would probably welcome the
program. "Obviously we have a large number of immigrants who are here doing
productive work for the people of Long Island, and I think any method in which
they can become legal would be welcomed because it would ensure their
continued employment." He said most employers would probably be willing to
step forward and sponsor their undocumented workers as long as there was no
penalty.

But local opponents of illegal immigration have already started contacting
members of Congress to campaign against the president's plan. Sachem Quality
of Life, a Farmingville group that has been outspoken against illegal immigration,
has been riven by internal disputes, but the two factions of the group are united
in their opposition to Mr. Bush's program.

"He says it would bring in workers as needed, but it's just going to enable
corporations to fire American workers and replace them with foreign workers,"
said Ed Person, leader of one Sachem faction. "President Bush is encouraging
lawbreaking, because illegal aliens will see that they're rewarded for breaking
the law."

Ray Wysolmierski, a leader of the other faction, agreed that the proposed
program would bring more illegal immigrants to the United States.

"Everybody knows what's going to happen," he said. "After three years, they
won't go back and the liberals will all say these people have been paying taxes
and contributing to the economy so it would be a terrible thing to make them go
back, and they'll wind up staying here."

Jack Kennedy, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of
Nassau and Suffolk Counties, said he feared that the program would "open up
the floodgates to immigration, and as far as I'm concerned and middle-class
workers are concerned, that's a real heavy threat to middle America." He said
that small employers who already operate in the underground economy of
undocumented workers would probably not participate in the program, but he
feared that large employers would, giving potential union jobs held by American
citizens to guest workers from abroad.

Still, Mr. Kennedy said, "I don't think we're going to be able to stop it, so I think
the next move for us is to take a real hard, serious look and try to organize
these people, because if not, we're going to see a spiraling down of what we
consider a livable wage." Immigrants may be happy to work for $7 or $10 an
hour, he said, but middle-class Long Islanders simply can't afford to make that
little.

Advocates for immigrants stressed that the vast majority of undocumented
workers already have regular jobs and that the president's program would finally
recognize them, put them on official payrolls, collect taxes from them and
provide some job security for them.

Ed Hernandez, a spokesman for the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, a coalition
of 24 service and advocacy groups, said that in Farmingville, where the number
of undocumented workers is estimated at 900 to 1,500, only about 200 workers
can be found on any given day rushing up to contractors' trucks looking for a
days' work. "That means that most of them are steadily and gainfully employed,"
he said. "The streetcorners are really the unemployment line for undocumented
workers."

Many of these people have come to Long Island because their fellow villagers
have come here, Mr. Hernandez said, but if companies elsewhere in the country
were encouraged to participate in the guest worker program, "maybe it will
reroute some of the folks who are coming up here." He added, "it wouldn't
eliminate all the issues around illegal hiring and labor practices, but it would
certainly reduce them."

Mr. Hernandez and other immigrant advocates said, however, that there were
aspects of the president's plan that needed refinement. They argued that an
adequate grace period should be included for those workers who lose their jobs
to remain in the country while looking for another job, and that safeguards
should be included to prevent unscrupulous employers from using the threat of
deportation as a way to intimidate their workers.

Carmen Maquilon, director of immigrant services for Catholic Charities, said she
applauded President Bush for finally grappling with the issue of undocumented
workers, but added, "His remedy is not good enough because it doesn't lead to
any permanent status and it doesn't address the need for family unity." Once a
person has been in this country for a few years and has established roots, she
said, "if they proved they are taxpayers and good for the country, they should be
allowed to get some type of permanent status and it should include their
families."

Men are most likely to participate in a guest worker program, thus leading to the
creation of de facto immigrant bachelor societies, she said. "A person who's here
trying to make money only sees tomorrow, not next week or next year," she
said. "So he will be happy to just have some type of legal status, but this
program will keep families apart."

One much-sought-after service at Ms. Maquilon's offices is help navigating the
system when an undocumented immigrant marries an American citizen and can
then apply for legal status. Ms. Maquilon said she and her staff screen couples to
make sure their unions aren't simply marriages of convenience.

Elizabeth, a 34-year-old immigrant from Bolivia who was meeting with a Catholic
Charities counselor but declined to give her last name, said she would have
welcomed President Bush's program when she first came to Long Island four
years ago.

She said she worked two jobs when she first arrived, one making $5.15 an hour
packing food for a lunch wagon and another making $7 an hour at a bakery. But
first she had to buy a fake Social Security card that allowed her to work on the
books, and every day she lived in fear of being discovered.

"Even if this is just temporary, at least you can renew the status and you can go
home and visit," she said. "Otherwise you can't even go back if your parents
die."

Her husband, Mike, is an American citizen. They met three years ago while he
was working as a volunteer at an outreach program in Bay Shore and she
stopped by in search of a donated couch. "I think it's fantastic if people who want
to work here can do it legally and not have to lie about what they are anymore,"
he said. "The ideal for immigrants is living with their families in a nice house, not
hiding and living in basements."

Elizabeth said that life in America has been much more difficult than she
imagined. "It's totally different from what they say before you come," she said.
"Only the hardest work is left for us and you have to be always afraid."

Then she turned to her husband, took his hand and said, "I told him, he is my
angel."

NYT

Posted by dc at January 18, 2004 03:12 AM