Thread: Illegals Sue N.Y. Village For Right To Solicit Work

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Illegal Immigrants Sue N.Y. Village For Right To Solicit Work

By JIM FITZGERALD
Associated Press Writer

April 27, 2006, 7:05 PM EDT

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Six illegal immigrant day laborers sued a Westchester village in federal court Thursday, claiming they were being harassed by the police to keep them from soliciting work in public places.

The workers claimed that new Mamaroneck village regulations and the selective enforcement of them were infringing on their right to free speech. They said it was unconstitutional to keep them from speaking with contractors who drive by to hire manual labor for repairing and landscaping area homes.

The plaintiffs all used the name John Doe because they are illegal immigrants, said John Garcia, a spokesman for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represents them.

While immigration control has become a national political issue, immigrant day laborers, most of them Hispanic, have become increasingly visible in Mamaroneck and other suburbs, clustering in the early morning in hopes of getting a day's work.

Three months ago, the village, which is 23 miles north of New York City, closed a parking lot area near Columbus Park that had been designated since 2004 as a day laborer pickup spot. Mayor Philip Trifiletti, who is named as a defendant, said Thursday that the area had attracted workers from far beyond Mamaroneck and as numbers reached 200 workers a day there were incidents of fighting, drug use and harassment of women.

He called the lawsuit, which was filed in White Plains, "misinformed and misdirected," saying workers are allowed to gather and be picked up along Mamaroneck Avenue near the old site. He acknowledged that numbers are down to 40 or 50 since the old pickup site was closed.

Police Chief Edward Flynn, the other named defendant, would not comment.

The plaintiffs, all residents of the village, asked the court for an injunction that would block what they consider harassment and would allow them back into the old pickup site, which was closed because the developer of a condominium across the street complained about the laborers.

With the lot closed to them, the laborers moved out to the edges of the park and the sidewalks, the lawsuit says, and the village then imposed traffic laws to keep contractors from stopping there.

In affidavits, the men said police have told them they cannot even stand on street corners.

"Policemen have repeatedly parked their vehicles with lights flashing next to groups of Latino men on streets and sidewalks around the park," the lawsuit says. "When the men move to another place on the street or sidewalk, the policemen have followed them, effectively chasing them from place to place."

One worker claimed that after he was picked up by a contractor, police pulled over the contractor's truck and forced both men to stay in the cab for two hours.

The lawsuit noted that the village turned down an offer from Westchester County to use some county property in the village as a hiring site. The suit was filed the day after County Executive Andrew Spano, in his State of the County speech, called for "less intolerance and more understanding" toward immigrants.


Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

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The plaintiffs all used the name John Doe because they are all illegal immigrants.

Don't know whether to bust out :P or

John Doe - that's too American!

Rights? I have no rights! I'm John Doe, American citizen, John Q. Public. My government sold my rights, which are supposed to be protected by the Constitution of the United States, up the river for cheap labor and corporate profits.

They sold their souls on the altar of globalism.

Remember in November!