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The Farmingville Crucible: Part III

Posted February 20, 2008 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

In the final installment of his essay on the rise of violent anti-immigrantism in Suffolk County, Jim Claffey looks at community responses and the challenges ahead. -Pat Young

The Long Island Immigrant Alliance
Concerned that the defeat of the shape-up site would spark similar efforts across Long Island against immigrants, and fearful that the attempted murder would signal an outbreak of more violence, twenty organizations met for two days to strategize and organize. The Long Island Immigrant Alliance is the direct result of this encounter. It seeks to coordinate different pro-immigrant activities loosely under one umbrella, to provide mutual support, and to sharpen advocacy efforts. Organizations big and small, and from every corner of Long Island, make up the Alliance: Catholic Charities Immigrant Services, the Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN), the Workplace Project, and the American Friends Service Committee, to mention a few. This diverse community, religious, labor, and immigrant coalition seeks to work in solidarity to defend the rights of all immigrants on Long Island.

The task is awesome. Long Island is considered the third most segregated area in the United States. Its population largely came east from Brooklyn and Queens to escape the kind of tensions associated with more crowded city arrangements, only to find, at least recently, an entirely new immigration pattern. In the past, immigrants tended to settle first in urban areas, and only after finding their way in the culture and economy, move to the suburbs. Now, however, it is strictly a case of labor following capital; the jobs are here, so are the workers. Recent development on Long Island, including notable growth in new housing, along with the accompanying demand for landscaping, cement, and paving work, has meant an unprecedented need for labor. The men on the corner fill that need.

The Future
Our Immigrant Alliance is struggling with the current Suffolk County executive, Steve Levy, over his ill-advised anti-immigrant proposals. As county executive, he sets the agenda for local government throughout the county and exercises great influence over many issues and priorities, including the delivery of constituent services in Suffolk. He has sought to deputize county police as immigration agents, called for routine checks on the immigration status of all foreign-born detained by the police, defended housing evictions for overcrowding (although to date only on immigrant housing), and demanded increased federal support against illegals. These measures seem to pander to SQL and its spin-off groups; they have angered both immigrant advocates and the advisory council on Hispanic concerns of the county executive himself. The measures not only unfairly presume a lack of proper documentation but more seriously serve to chill relationships between the police and the community, making immigrants less likely to offer information to help an investigation. These unfortunate initiatives only add to the daily burden immigrant communities already bear in a society vastly less friendly to them since 9/11. Already living in the margins of the society whose labor needs they supply, immigrants will move further into the shadows because of these recent initiatives, making it all the more difficult to know who is actually residing here and what their needs are.

The Long Island Immigrant Alliance confronts a difficult agenda. On the one hand, the constant need to counter the different anti-immigrant measures proposed by portions of society and government. On the other is the desire to be proactive and to educate our communities about the real contributions of new immigrant communities and the revitalization they bring. In this post-9/11 world, immigration is an increasingly complex issue. A final thought: when we consider that one of every seven residents in the United States is Latino, and that immigration seems to be both U.S. history and U.S. destiny, it is essential for the future of the United States to constructively engage the national immigration debate and in the process, hopefully, treat immigrants fairly and humanely.

Go to Part I of The Farmingville Crucible

Tags : farmingville, hate crimes, hate watch, sachem quality of life, suffolk

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