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They ‘ran us out of there’
Mexican laborers scramble to find shelter after a raid in Farmingville leaves dozens homeless

BY BART JONES
STAFF WRITER
June 22, 2005

Emiliano wore the same clothes yesterday he'd had on since 6 a.m. Monday when he went to work at his construction job. The day laborer's belongings were locked up in a Farmingville house raided by authorities who evicted at least two dozen Mexican immigrants.

Emiliano, 43, who did not want to give his last name for fear of reprisals, waited yesterday to get into the house at 33 Woodmont Place, and wondered where he was going to live. On Monday night, he slept on the floor of a Suffolk location immigrant advocates did not want to specifically disclose.

Other workers slept on floors or sofas of houses already overcrowded with day laborers, said Irma Solis of the Workplace Project, a Hempstead nonprofit trying to find housing for the immigrants.

The authorities "ran us out of there," Emiliano said in Spanish as he sat in a plaza in Farmingville with some of the displaced workers. He and others, such as Alberto, 20, scoffed at officials' assertions that they raided the house to help the immigrants by extracting them from dangerous living conditions.

"If it's to help us, they should tell us where there's a place we can live," Emiliano said.

One day after the raid in a hamlet wracked by tensions over an influx of undocumented Mexican immigrants, authorities defended the operation. They also said 117 overcrowded houses in Farmingville and 300 throughout Brookhaven Town are the focus of investigations or court actions.

More raids are "inevitable," said Inez Birbiglia, a town spokeswoman. She added that it also was likely more people would be left homeless by the raids, because the town's first responsibility is safety and that unlike Suffolk County it does not provide social services.

"No human being, no animal should ever live in that house," she said. "It's a death trap waiting to happen."

The house's owner, Rosalina Dias, 31, of Selden, was released from Suffolk County jail yesterday after posting $20,000 bail. She is charged with criminal contempt and criminal nuisance for allegedly violating an October court order barring her from renting the single-family house.

Authorities said up to 64 men lived in the house, but workers said the actual figure was between two dozen and 40. Emiliano and other workers said they made the best of the situation, working cooperatively to cook meals, for instance. Solis said they would hang their towels in a row to mark their spot for the next in line to take a shower in one of the two bathrooms.

Birbiglia said the workers were given from 7 a.m. Sunday until 6 p.m. Monday to remove their belongings. The workers said they were never told the house was being shut, and that it was sealed off by noon Monday.

She also said the town tried to contact private social service agencies, particularly Catholic Charities, to relocate the men. But Carmen Maquilon, director of immigrant services for Catholic Charities, said her organization received a call from the town at 11:30 a.m. Monday -- too late to do anything.

"We mentioned to them ... that Catholic Charities does not run a homeless shelter," Maquilon said. "We do not have facilities to put people, especially on such short notice."

Ed Dumas, a spokesman for Suffolk Executive Steve Levy, who helped spearhead the raid, said Brookhaven Town was in charge of relocation.

While many Farmingville residents cheered the raid, Patrick Young, head of the pro-immigrant Long Island Immigrant Alliance, said the lack of housing for the workers confirmed Levy is conducting a campaign against Latino immigrants, who view him as "Public Enemy No. 1."

Dumas called the assertion of an anti-Latino campaign "absurd," and said Levy was addressing a serious problem of overcrowded and dangerous houses. The Farmingville house "was a death trap," he said.

Staff writer Joseph Mallia contributed to this story.