In Suffolk County, New York, illegal aliens and their supporters were dealt a blow last month, when the county legislature’s proposal to fund a hiring hall for day laborers, many of whom are illegal aliens, was vetoed by the county executive.
Catholic Charities of Suffolk had asked for money from the county to build a hiring hall, which, by providing a place for employers to hire laborers for a day’s work without checking their immigration status, would likely harbor illegal aliens. The county legislature agreed, passing a bill to give $80,000 of tax payer’s money to fund the creation of the hiring hall, to be run by the religious private charity.
FAIR has been assisting Suffolk immigration reform activists in their battle to stop the hiring hall.
Although the county legislature approved the bill, County Executive Robert Gaffney took his citizen’s concerns to heart and vetoed it. “We would be giving money to an organization whose intent is to create a facility in which breaking of federal laws and New York state labor laws will be encouraged and condoned and facilitated,” Gaffney explained. “We can’t do that.”
In a bizarre twist, the New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer issued a statement calling for the county legislature to override Gaffney’s veto. Reacting to Spitzer’s statement, FAIR supported Gaffney and the concerned citizens of Suffolk.
"The people of Suffolk County have a perfect right to make distinctions between illegal alien workers and everyone else,” commented FAIR Executive Director Dan Stein. “That is neither illegal nor unfair. They have the right to call on their government to spend their tax dollars wisely and to do all that is possible to discourage the settlement of person who are in the country illegally.”
When over 100 immigration reform activists filled the county legislature’s meeting hall for its all day meeting on overriding the veto, their voice and presence changed the minds of several legislators, and the attempted override failed, leaving Gaffney’s veto intact. Before the meeting, FAIR representatives had met with several legislators to give them the background information to understand the danger of overriding the veto. Those legislators thanked FAIR for educating them about the issue, crediting their change of heart to our efforts and those of the local activists.
“With such a victory, I don’t think we’ll see another bill to fund a hiring hall for illegal aliens arise in next year’s legislature,” commented FAIR Eastern Regional Field Coordinator Jim Staudenraus. “But if it does, you can be sure will be out in force to oppose it again.”
05/2001
