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Proposed Suffolk County Law Unfairly Criminalizes Day Laborers, NYCLU Testifies (3/6/2007)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
NEW YORK- The New
York Civil Liberties Union today expressed its firm opposition to an
anti-immigrant ordinance under consideration by the Suffolk County legislature,
arguing in testimony that the bill criminalizes "standing while Latino" by
unfairly targeting day laborers seeking work.
"The proposal before
the Legislature today will devastate the lives of Suffolk County residents by
preventing day laborers from supporting their families and putting food on their
tables," said Udi Ofer, NYCLU Legislative Counsel, in testimony before county
lawmakers. "It is an attempt to stifle the economic opportunities available to
immigrant and Latino workers."
The NYCLU testified that the bill
would discriminate against day laborers, who are overwhelmingly immigrant and
Latino, engaged in constitutionally protected activities. The bill would make it
illegal for day laborers to loiter or stand along county roadways while impeding
the free passage of pedestrians or cars. It would also outlaw loitering or
standing along county roadways for the purpose of soliciting or selling any
product or service to a person in a car. The NYCLU said that these regulations
would unduly infringe on Suffolk residents’ First Amendment rights to seek work
in public spaces.
According to the NYCLU, this proposed
legislation is the latest in a series of thinly veiled attempts by the Suffolk
County Legislature to create an inhospitable environment for immigrant
workers. Local police officials do not have statistics on the number of
accidents associated with day laborers soliciting jobs on county roadways.
Moreover, lawmakers and police officials have yet to explain why current road
safety laws - such as New York State’s Vehicle and Traffic Laws - are inadequate
to safeguard roadways. "Road safety is simply a smokescreen for the real
motivations behind legislation that is actually intended to target Latino day
laborers trying to make a decent living,” the NYCLU said.
"This
bill is no innocent public safety measure," said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU
Executive Director. "Instead, it is a hostile attempt to drive day laborers from
roadsides and, indeed, from Suffolk County itself."
In addition to
being anti-immigrant and anti-Latino, Ofer testified, the bill is plainly
unconstitutional. The First Amendment protects the right of people to solicit
work in public spaces, and the bill infringes on this right by discriminating
against day labor speech and preventing day laborers from soliciting work.
Similar ordinances have been struck down as unconstitutional by federal courts.
"This bill would further drive the rise of anti-immigrant and
anti-Latino sentiments in Suffolk County and the nation," said Dolores Bilges,
Executive Director of the NYCLU’s Suffolk Chapter. "Suffolk County should be
welcoming immigrants instead of stirring hysteria with allegations unsupported
by evidence."
The NYCLU’s testimony is available online at: www.nyclu.org/day_laborers_suffolk_tstmny_030607.html
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