Thread: L.I. Home Held Up to 64 Men, Authorities Say

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/nyregion/21house.html

L.I. Home Held Up to 64 Men, Authorities Say

June 21, 2005
By BRUCE LAMBERT
FARMINGVILLE, N.Y., June 20 - Long Island law enforcement agents raided and closed a small one-family home here that they said had been converted into an illegal rooming house jammed with 44 beds and up to 64 male occupants.

Officials said they are investigating an additional 117 houses for illegal overcrowding in this blue-collar suburb, which has been polarized in recent years over an influx of thousands of Mexican laborers, many of them illegal immigrants who work in the contracting, landscaping and service industries.

The crackdown is the latest front in the battle over immigration here that has prompted homeowner protests and even violence. Last year Farmingville became the title of an award-winning documentary on the struggle.

Shortly after dawn on Sunday, a team of Brookhaven building inspectors and fire marshals joined county police in raiding the dilapidated, 900-square-foot home at 33 Woodmont Place and found 28 men there. But inspectors said they had counted as many as 64 men emerging from the house on other mornings in recent weeks.

The tenants paid $225 to $250 a month each for a bunk in the house, the police said. Suffolk's district attorney, Thomas J. Spota, estimated the gross monthly rent at $9,000.

The site is just a block away from Granny Road, where in July 2003, local teenagers set fire to a house with a Mexican family sleeping inside. The family barely escaped. Three years before that, two out-of-towners pretending to be contractors lured two Mexican tenants from the house next door and savagely beat them. In both cases the assailants were arrested and convicted.

"It's ground zero," said Rev. Allan B. Ramirez, an advocate for immigrants who was familiar with the house on Woodmont and returned there Monday as some occupants removed their belongings.

At a news conference on Monday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy called the house "a hellhole" that disrupted the entire neighborhood and endangered the tenants, who paid exorbitant rents. Such conditions "will not be tolerated," he said.

The authorities identified Rosalina Dias, 31, of Selden, as the owner and arrested her on criminal contempt and criminal nuisance charges, saying she had ignored State Supreme Court orders to comply with building codes. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment in Suffolk's First District Court in Central Islip. She was held in $20,000 bail, according to the sheriff's department.

Though the tenants were not formally evicted, many left, and on Monday town inspectors effectively closed the building by posting warning notices that the building was unsafe and putting yellow tape across the doors.

Longtime Farmingville residents complain that many immigrants cluster menacingly on corners waiting for work and that overcrowded houses generate noise, traffic and garbage and burden local services.

"The conditions were disgusting" in the house, said Councilman James Tullo of Brookhaven. Officials said the inside was a filthy jumble of mattresses, clothing and food. Photographs and videotape showed a collapsing ceiling, overloaded electrical wiring and blocked basement windows.

The main floor had a kitchen and two bathrooms. That floor and the basement were crammed with beds and belongings. Outside were two bicycles, a grill and cases of empty beer bottles in two shopping carts.

Conditions are as bad or even worse at some of the 117 other houses that the authorities are investigating, Mr. Tullo said.

Defenders of the immigrant workers say they provide low-cost menial labor but are often exploited by contractors who pay illegally low wages with no benefits.

Mr. Ramirez accused Mr. Levy of "racism" and "ethnic cleansing." While conceding "horrible conditions" in the house, the minister said the abrupt enforcement means "basically there will be 25 or 30 men sleeping out on the street."

"There are hundreds and hundreds of mother-daughter apartments and dozens and dozens of group cottages on Fire Island that are just as illegal," Mr. Ramirez said, "so why does Levy continue to target just the Latino community?"

A mother-daughter apartment refers to a separate apartment within a single-family home, which often violate local codes.

Mr. Levy said that social service and charitable agencies would house anyone who was homeless. "This was a concentration camp setting," he said. "How do you compare a mother-daughter house with a deathtrap like this? Reverend Ramirez would be the first extremist holding a press conference if a fire killed 40 people there."

In the neighborhood, Dianne Aragones, a child care worker, welcomed the enforcement after years of disruptions, including contractors honking their truck horns for workers before 6 a.m.

"With us it's definitely not a racial issue, because I'm Irish and my husband is Puerto Rican," she said. "My heart aches for these men. They're used and abused. They came for a better life. You can sympathize - all our ancestors did. But having 50, 60 people in one house is not good for them or anyone."

But across the street from the closed house, Jaime Aqueron, an art teacher, said he had no objections "They never bothered me, and I never bothered them," he said. "We're fine with them. They're trying to make a living, like everyone else."

Mr. Ramirez accused Mr. Levy of "racism" and "ethnic cleansing."

No Mr. Ramirez, it's called illegal cleansing! Why every single one of those invaders is not facing deportation is beyond me.

Apparently, according to many of the news posts I have read here, ICE will deport illegals to every country BUT Mexico. What is up with THAT?

Yup, they let all 64 men walk free .. shame on the SCPD whos officers refuse to arrest illegal immigrants as its "not their job". A few years ago, an illegal immigrant ran over a mother and her baby (both killed) and the SCPD refused to arrest the man because he was an illegal immigrant. They also let illegals go when the pull them over for traffic violations and in the past have ignored gang activity and rising crime rates.

As for Steve Levy, I dident want him to win the election in the 1st place but now because of what hes doing to stop all this illegal immigration and gang problems im behind him 100%.

But across the street from the closed house, Jaime Aqueron, an art teacher, said he had no objections "They never bothered me, and I never bothered them," he said. "We're fine with them. They're trying to make a living, like everyone else."

Does anyone want to make a wager as to whether Jaime Aqueron is a renter or home owner?

Half the teachers in my school have absolutly no problem with the illegal immigrant invasion and have a seemingly endless list of excuses to justify it.

Originally Posted by ChrisF202

Half the teachers in my school have absolutly no problem with the illegal immigrant invasion and have a seemingly endless list of excuses to justify it.

I'm curious to know what kind of excuses they are using to justify illegal immigration.

Originally Posted by Brian503a

Originally Posted by ChrisF202

Half the teachers in my school have absolutly no problem with the illegal immigrant invasion and have a seemingly endless list of excuses to justify it.

I'm curious to know what kind of excuses they are using to justify illegal immigration.

Lets see:
Cheap Labor
They are doing the Jobs Americans wont do
Food in the Fields will rot without them
They are just trying to feed their families
We cant survive without them
Food Prices will get out of control


I had a fun debate about this today.

Same old tired cliches. Don't these people have a mind of their own, or do they really believe all the propaganda fed to them by the news and Bush administaration. I guess the added costs to taxpayers doesn't matter along with the other problems associated with illegal immigrants.

Funny they didn't say anything about more public funding for schools and a greater demand for more teachers. Obviously that's a good excuse to get a fatter paycheck for themselves. I'm sure that has little influence on their support for illegal immigration.

Yep,
I got a mjor headache form that today. The people are not looking at the BIG PICTURE.

Lets see:
Cheap Labor
They are doing the Jobs Americans wont do
Food in the Fields will rot without them
They are just trying to feed their families
We cant survive without them
Food Prices will get out of control

If those teachers believe this bologna, it doesn't say much about their level of intelligence. The only point that you could make a semi-intelligent argument for is the "trying to feed their families." Even then, they can feed their families in their own country. The other points can be easily disproven by the research of a couple of fourth graders.