Thread: Laborer advocates lash out at Levy for being called.........

This is so funny. I bet these people have no problems calling anyone against illegal immigration facists, nazis and racists. Glad to see they had the tables turned on them.


www.newsday.com

Laborer advocates lash out at Levy

BY INDRANI SEN
STAFF WRITER

October 5, 2005

Advocates for immigrant day workers reacted with anger and derision to Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's statement in a Newsday column yesterday that they were associated with communist and anarchist groups.

"It's so laughable that you can't even deny it," said the Rev. Allan Ramirez, who vol- unteers with the Workplace Project, a group Levy said is "an offshoot of the old communist ... anarchist groups that always hovered around."

Nadia Marin-Molina, the Workplace Project's executive director, said the nonprofit was started in 1992 by a law school graduate to help protect low-income workers from mistreatment on the job.

"Obviously the organization advocates and supports people who are low-income, but I don't know how that got turned into communism or anarchy," Marin-Molina said. "We're certainly not going to back off, but it's scary to have a person in such a position of power making these kinds of accusations."

Ramirez also took exception to Levy accusing him of playing "the race card."

"Using the race card is equating the terrorists of 9/11 with undocumented workers," Ramirez said, referring to comments Levy made about the need to stop illegal immigration in a post-9/11 world. "That's playing the race card. He's very good at that."

Levy has nothing to do with the evictions (unless he had Suffolk County deputy sheriff's do them but in the Farmingville evictions it was the Town of Brookhaven Public Safety who handled them). Yes, he did start the writing the tickets to the contractors thing and he did get the ball rolling but it was the town who evicted them with the unarmed peace officers (a hell of a job if you ask me).

Dont forget to thank these people:

http://www1.brookhaven.org/departments/ ... &page_id=3

or

http://www1.brookhaven.org/departments/ ... page_id=59

I would not just automatically refute Steve Levy but would like to see the evidence. The same allegation of Communist ties to the New Haven Peace Commission group is much more clear cut. I do not doubt that Communists are probably working with the group Levy is denigrating. The local sign carrying ones from various Communists groups near me have been vocal in favor of illegal aliens.

I know for a fact that they are .... the Commies led the protests against the Minutemen at the 9/10 rally in Babylon, NY. One would think people would eventually realize the communism never succeds and always turns into a dictatorship.

www.newsday.com

Belief in America, no faith in Levy
Joye Brown


October 7, 2005

The Rev. Allan Ramirez, a volunteer with The Workplace Project, an immigrant rights group, is Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's polar opposite on Long Island immigration and Hispanic day laborer issues.

Yesterday, I asked him why.

On immigrating to the United States from Ecuador, with his parents and eight siblings, as a 12-year-old child: "We ended up in our own little 3 1/2-room, cockroach-infested apartment in Hackensack, N.J. But it wasn't by choice. My mother and father risked their lives, risked everything they had. They believed in America."

On Steve Levy: "When I read Mr. Levy's comments, I read his anger. And I read the way that he simply decides to malign people's names and defame their reputation. I felt sorry for him. The first thing I thought about was I need to pray for this man. When he associates 9/11 to undocumented workers, to me, that's race baiting, because none of the 9/11 terrorists were here as undocumented. Yet somehow he tied them to undocumented workers. That's pushing those hot buttons that make people feel terrorized. He is playing to people's fears. For that, I forgive him, too.

"There's almost what I consider a perverted need on his part to show that he is a tough guy, that he can beat up on the most vulnerable, the weakest, the poorest among us. Society's dignity is measured by the way we treat the poorest among us. And if we had to give a grade to Mr. Levy, he would get an F. He has forgotten the very best of what America is about is taking people from different parts of the world. They have hope. They have hope that if they are given the opportunity to work, they will make it in America."

On public support of Levy's actions: "George Wallace was very popular but it didn't make him right. The fact that Mr. Levy may be popular on this issue doesn't make him right. If you say you are concerned about their living conditions, present some alternatives. Don't tell me that you are concerned about somebody and then throw them out on the street."

On day laborers, employers and congested streets: "There is the legitimate issue that with workers on street corners there is the potential for some traffic problems. Any rational and reasonable person would accept that. I am the first one to accept that. So how do we resolve that issue? We resolve that issue by creating worksites in areas where people go looking for jobs."

On overcrowded single-family housing: "I have never suggested that 25 people live in a house. And given the opportunity, I would be the first one to say, look, this is unacceptable. And for anyone to suggest that advocates of immigrants want them to live in these conditions is ludicrous. What we want is for government to have some backbone and address the issue of housing.

"You have to think creatively. We have to recognize that there may be different approaches that have to be taken. Everything has to be put on the table. Maybe there should be some dormitory-style housing, maybe there has to be some efficiency apartments where you allow two or four people in them. Something can be done, but somebody has to have the political backbone to present them."

A challenge: "Mr. Levy, in one swoop, could tie the county licensing of restaurants, construction workers and catering halls to them not hiring undocumented workers. I would challenge him to do that. But he wouldn't do that because there would be a political price to pay. The economy of Long Island would be affected. He wouldn't want to do that. He is just raising the issue that they are illegal. By throwing out insults, he keeps us from focusing on the issues at hand. Affordable housing, worksites, protection for the workers so they are not abused."

On documented versus undocumented immigrants: "We have looked the other way on our borders because we needed workers. We are really wasting our time having an argument on whether they are legal or not. The issue is they are here. Mr. Levy, I have news for you, these 12 million people [in the United States], they are staying here. Every single one of those undocumented workers in Suffolk County, they are going to stay in Suffolk County whether you like it or not, whether I like it or not, whether anyone else likes it or not. They are here to stay. We need to address the issue on the local level, where we are."

Steve Levy is a true hero to our movement.

Ive added this to the homepage with a new title.

Communists & Anarchists lash out at Steve Levy for stance on illegal immigrants.
http://www.alipac.us/article796.html

What a joke this Rev. Allan Ramirez is. Get creative he says. How in the hell could we possible take in every poor person in the world that want to live here. We simply cannot. If you put too many people into the boat it sinks!

Let the governments in Latin America "get creative" and care for their own damn people.

And we all know that the 9/11 hijackers were illegal aliens that violated immigration laws.