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  1. #1

    Join Date
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    Legislators Approve Anti-Immigration Bill - NY

    http://1010wins.com/pages/85514.php?con ... tId=208362

    LI Legislators Approve Anti-immigration Bill

    RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- Stepping into the national debate on illegal immigration Tuesday, county legislators overwhelmingly approved a new law that requires contractors doing business with the county to certify their employees are legally in the United States.

    The bill was seen as anti-immigration by supporters of day laborers and others but won the support of Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the influential chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

    The Suffolk County Legislature's final vote was 15-3 and followed about 12 hours of public comment and debate over several weeks.

    The county executive, Steve Levy, was the leading proponent of the bill and defended it as a vital tool in helping crack down on illegal immigration.

    ``The thing that feeds illegal immigration is the hiring,'' Levy said in an interview with The Associated Press after introducing the legislation. ``If every county and town and state used this type of law, it would go a long way in mitigating the immigration problem. If you dry up the jobs, you dry up the flow of illegal immigration.''

    It was not immediately clear when Levy would sign the bill.

    The legislation affects about 6,000 companies and agencies that have county contracts. The penalties include fines and potential jail time, and repeat offenders could forfeit their contracts.

    Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher, a Democrat who said she came to America as a child from the Dominican Republic and was a legal immigrant, contended there was ``no empirical data'' to show contractors are hiring illegal workers.

    ``I don't believe this bill is truly enforceable,'' said Viloria-Fisher, who voted against the proposal.

    Levy, a Democrat who co-founded a national coalition called Mayors and Executives for Immigration Reform, received critical backing for his proposal last month from King, whose district includes parts of Suffolk County.

    ``I don't know anyone in the country who is more reflecting the view of the American people than Steve Levy, and he does it under terrible abuse, attack and distortion,'' King said.

    Others decried the legislation.

    ``I think the vote confirms an image that the legislators are impotent political cowards,'' said the Rev. Allen Ramirez, a longtime advocate for day laborers on Long Island.

    Noting past attacks on day laborers and the firebombing of a Farmingville house inhabited by Mexican immigrants, Ramirez said he feared Tuesday's vote may incite further strife.

    ``This vote is a validation of the street violence and the vigilantism we've already seen,'' he said. ``No one has shown that any companies doing business with Suffolk County hire undocumented people. They are glossing over the fact there is no need for this law.''

    Suffolk County, on the eastern half of Long Island, has experienced an influx of day laborers from Mexico and Central America over the past decade. Levy estimated the number has grown to 40,000. There are about 1.5 million people living in Suffolk County.

    In 2000, two men lured a pair of Mexican day laborers to an abandoned basement in the county with a promise of work and then beat them with tools. The men were convicted in separate trials in what prosecutors said was a racially motivated attack.
    "When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

  2. #2
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    Nov 2004
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    Alabama
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    WOOHOO!!

    Way to go Mr. King!!!!!!!!!!
    Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God

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