NY Law Scares Contractors Into Compliance
Feared Sweeps for Illegal Workers Found Just One

COREY KILGANNON

To great fanfare in October 2006, Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, signed a new law requiring 6,000 contractors working for the county to affirm that their employees were not illegal immigrants, prompting fear of impromptu inspections and roundups of Hispanic men.

Since then, county officials have found exactly one worker without proper immigration documents, after conducting two sweeps of a total of 33 contractors last summer and fall. A second worker at the same construction company, North Star Concrete, was initially suspected, but the $9,500 fine regarding his status was dismissed when the company produced proper documentation.

“All that fuss over the need for this law and they only cite one guy?â€