May 7, 2008 3:05 PM
The latest on the fight against IR 1105
The developments in Suffolk over the last three weeks point to strengths and weaknesses in the immigrant rights community's work to stop IR 1105. Both positives and negatives were on display for everone at the Suffolk Legislature on April 29.
The likely-illegal discharge of the bill from committee came as a surprise to many (all?) of us. We had been in weekly contact with legislative insiders and had not anticipated this. Because the anti-immigrant faction controlled the timing, we were caught back on our heels.
However, because of the coalition work of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, we were able to quickly develop a coherent position, organize a media response, and contact our allies to mobilize lawyers for possible legal action. With only a week between the announcement of the bill coming out of committee and the meeting of the full Legislature, we accomplished an unprecedented action plan in a matter of hours.
If the surprise of the bill's discharge illustrated our difficulty in penetrating the mechanations of Levy's henchmen, our unanimity and speed in organizing opposition demonstrated a growing maturity within our movement.
The growth of our coalition beyond our traditional groups also was on display. Political organizations like the Working Families Party played an important role. We also were stronger because of new resources including the hiring of Jesse Rock by LIIA, who had to assume a leadership role in the Alliance in her first month on the job, and the start of two new staffers at LIWins, Lisa and Kirby. This web site, which has only come into its own in the last couple of months, has also been a valuable tool for organizing activists against the bill.
On the negative side, we underestimated the anti-immigrant turnout from the building trades unions. They brought about a hundred people to the Legislature, and they got there before we did. That means they occupied the center seats at the Legislature, the ones the nervous legislators had in their lines of sight. Key personnel absences, brought on by conflicting engagements, meant that many of our traditional floor managers were not present at the start of the hearing. This left some of our supporters who had not been to the legislature before a bit confused about what they were supposed to do.
On the positive side, Rick Montano and Serge Martinez entered the Legislature at literally the 11th hour like conquering heros. Their last minute legal victory threw the ball back into our court.
Over the next two weeks, I'll be publishing a series of appeals to different constituencies calling for them to mobilize against IR 1105. If you know people who might be moved by them, would you please forward the appeal to them, along with a link to our site.