Thread: NY-Immigrants rally to learn of health care, worker rights

Immigrants rally to learn of health care, worker rights
BY DAVE MARCUS | dave.marcus@newsday.com
July 27, 2008
By the hundreds, Hispanic immigrants have flocked to a Hampton Bays church to seek information on health care and workers' rights.

They have been visiting a mobile unit of the New York State Department of Labor that sends Spanish-speaking staff members to explain the minimum wage and other laws. The five-day project, which ends today, also includes a roving office of the Mexican Consulate in New York, which has issued Mexican ID cards and passports.

When the blue "Labor on Wheels" van arrived in Riverhead Wednesday, organizers expected a small but steady flow of immigrants. Instead, more than 500 people showed up in Thursday's drenching rains, said Mayra Peters-Quintero, director of immigrant workers' rights at the labor department.

Nearly 100 more arrived Friday. One of those was Marcela Ramirez, 25, a mother of two who said she has been in the country since 1995 without documents. She had relatives in Puebla, Mexico, send her birth certificate and then, for the first time, she had a passport.



"It was scary not having any identification for so long," she said.

The mobile unit has come to Long Island four times since starting under former Gov. Eliot Spitzer a year and a half ago. This time, it arrived after the Suffolk Legislature tried to crack down on contractors who hire undocumented workers.

In some parts of the East End, hostility toward undocumented workers has reached the point where those without papers are afraid of the police and other local officials, said Sister Breige Lavery, of the Hispanic Apostolate of the South Fork, which helped host the fair.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said he had no objection to the event as long as undocumented residents weren't being signed up for services paid by taxpayers.

The fair continues today from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Centro Carazon de Maria, 31 E. Montauk Hwy., Hampton Bays.


http://www.newsday.com/news/printeditio ... 7,0,503776

Why is this still going on after they got rid of Spitzer? And Mr. Levy is a total fool saying its okay as long as they don't get taxpayer dollars. Well, sir, since it is a van sent by the NY Dept. of Labor, isn't that funded by taxpayer dollars?

So as long as they don`t use taxpayers money,PLEASE. Does that mean just for that day. The mother of two doesn`t get free food stamps or better yet healthcare through out the year?

Remeber the stories of the LT.Gov that took over in Spitzer place ? He's WORST than Spitzer

NO TAXPAYER MONEY IS BEING USED TO EVEN GET THE WORD OUT

DOES ANYONE THINK THESE ILLEGALS WOULD BE OR HAVE BEEN NICE TO AN AMERICAN IN THEIR COUNTRY?

She had relatives in Puebla, Mexico, send her birth certificate and then, for the first time, she had a passport.

What is she going to do with a passport? She cant travel with it can she? She is an illegal immigrant.