Thread: NY-Astorino's comments on immigrants draw fire

Astorino's comments on immigrants draw fire
By Leah Rae • lrae@lohud.com • July 7, 2009

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The Republican challenger for Westchester's county executive post got a Bronx cheer from a group of community advocates yesterday for comments he made about an influx of undocumented immigrants and "people who are moving in from the Bronx."





Candidate Rob Astorino's comments came during a televised interview on News 12 about rising property taxes, which he said were forcing people to leave the county.



"But look who's coming in," he said. "They need more services. It's not people who necessarily can keep a house, it's people who are moving in from the Bronx. ... It could be illegal immigrants."



The statements aired June 27 and prompted more than 40 people to gather for a news conference yesterday outside El Centro Hispano, a community service agency in White Plains.



"We're here to let people know that it's not acceptable to scapegoat a group of people for problems that face all of us," said Betsy Palmieri, executive director of the Hudson Valley Community Coalition.



Yesterday's conference included two Democratic elected leaders, members of the county's Hispanic Advisory Board, immigration attorneys and a group of senior citizens who had been taking computer classes inside.



Such comments amount to anti-Hispanic rhetoric "that causes divisiveness and hatred," said Robin Bikkal, who chairs the county's Hispanic Advisory Board, serves as Centro Hispano's president and helped organize the Hispanic Democrats of Westchester.



The speakers said they were not playing politics - that they would have responded no matter which party's candidate had made the statements. Astorino is running against County Executive Andrew Spano, having challenged the Democrat unsuccessfully in 2005.



Astorino said later that he was not claiming that illegal immigrants were the reason why Westchester's property taxes were high, or that they were a "major problem" in the county, but that they did create a burden for local communities. "People are here that have not received their citizenship, and they are using services, and the taxpayers of this county and of this nation are bearing the costs of that," he said.




As for the Bronx, he said he had no disregard for the borough across the New York city line, where his father grew up.



"I can get a Bronx cheer for how I said it, but what I said is correct," Astorino said. "If we don't stop taxing at the rates we do, nobody's going to be left in Westchester County."



Westchester County property taxes increased an average of 2.6 percent this year.



Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for most public services, such as welfare or Social Security benefits.



David Dyssegaard Kallick of the Fiscal Policy Institute, who has researched the economic impact of immigration in New York, said undocumented immigrants do pay local sales taxes and property taxes, whether directly as owners or indirectly as renters.



"At the local level, undocumented immigrants are, in fact, paying the same taxes as everybody else," he said. "On services, it's very difficult obviously to get clear data, but I think there's no reason to believe that undocumented immigrants use more services than legal immigrants or U.S.-born residents in the same income brackets."



As for the Bronx, he said he had no disregard for the borough across the New York city line, where his father grew up.



"I can get a Bronx cheer for how I said it, but what I said is correct," Astorino said. "If we don't stop taxing at the rates we do, nobody's going to be left in Westchester County."



Westchester County property taxes increased an average of 2.6 percent this year.



Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for most public services, such as welfare or Social Security benefits.



David Dyssegaard Kallick of the Fiscal Policy Institute, who has researched the economic impact of immigration in New York, said undocumented immigrants do pay local sales taxes and property taxes, whether directly as owners or indirectly as renters.



"At the local level, undocumented immigrants are, in fact, paying the same taxes as everybody else," he said. "On services, it's very difficult obviously to get clear data, but I think there's no reason to believe that undocumented immigrants use more services than legal immigrants or U.S.-born residents in the same income brackets."


http://www.lohud.com/article/20090707/N ... 0/-1/RSS01

"At the local level, undocumented immigrants are, in fact, paying the same taxes as everybody else," he said.---

How can eight people living in a run down 800 sq. ft. apartment designed for three max. occupancy be paying the same local property taxes (on a per capita basis---government services are consumed on a per capita basis) as a typical native household?

"On services, it's very difficult obviously to get clear data, but I think there's no reason to believe that undocumented immigrants use more services than legal immigrants or U.S.-born residents in the same income brackets."

Twisted logic alert! This is like saying: "We already have some 'Poor People' so allowing more to come here is OK."

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for most public services, such as welfare or Social Security benefits.

Yea, but their anchor babies are! Besides, is E-Verify used at the local welfare or other social service offices?

I guess this guy has not heard how much illegals send back to there home country, therefore it is NOT being spent in our ecomony and they are not purchacing and paying sales tax like American workers would, they also live 15 to a house so they pay much less property tax than a single family on their own.

Where is the common sense??