Day laborers struggle after racist evictions
By
Heather Cottin
Long Island, N.Y.
Published Jun 30, 2005 9:09 PM
In the early hours
of June 20, while several dozen tenants of a tiny bungalow at 33 Woodmont Avenue
in Farmingville, N.Y., on Long Island, were still sleeping, Brookhaven town
authorities raided the dwelling and evicted them from their home.
Town
authorities claimed concern for the terrible living conditions the workers, most
of whom are Mexican, faced. But this expulsion was a racist political attack
meant to drive Latinos out of Long Island.
The raid showed the
government’s contempt for the thousands of Latino day laborers, the
jornaleros who work for low wages under brutal conditions in the landscaping,
construction and restaurant industries across the region.
Among Latino
immigrants and their supporters, the response was immediate. Local organizers
from Centro de Apoyo de Farmingville, United Day Laborers, of Long Island, the
Freeport Worklink Center, in Nassau, the Workplace Project, Jobs with Justice
and several churches and community groups marched and rallied on June 26 to
fight the evictions and defend the rights of the jornaleros.
Suffolk
County Supervisor Steve Levy warned that another 123 homes in Farm ingville face
similar raids. He refused to meet with members of Centro de Apoyo, the immigrant
support committee in Farmingville, or any of the Long Island org ani zations in
support of the day laborers.
“I will not meet with them on this
matter,” he said. “I’m not one who’s going to be
intimidated by their antics or marches. Bring it on.” (New York Times,
June 26)
Levy played to his racist constituency by calling the organizers
of the march and rally in support of immigrant rights “a lunatic
fringe.” (Newsday, June 28)
Farmingville is a village where racists
have organized vicious attacks on undocumented Latino workers in the past. The
virulence of the local reactionaries is even the subject of a documentary called
“Farmingville.”
Two years ago, the racist Sachem Quality of
Life group organized a sparsely attended conference against Latino immigrants
and day laborers. The racists invited Glenn Spencer, leader of the vigilante
American Patrol, and members of the Minutemen to participate.
And it was
in Farmingville where, in 2000, racists kidnapped two Mexican jornaleros from
their home, took them to an unoccupied building and viciously beat
them.
It was in Farmingville that, one summer night in 2003, a gang of
local teenagers firebombed a house in which a Mexican family was asleep in their
beds. The family escaped with their lives.
‘Housing is a
right!’
“We were evicted without notice,” said
Benito Martinez, one of the residents thrown out into the street June 20.
“Others from my house were out working, or standing on the corners,
seeking work. They weren’t allowed back to collect their
clothing.”
Benitez added. “We have to speak up, we have to
work together to fight these evictions.”
The Rev. Allan Ramirez from
the Brook ville Church in nearby Nassau County held up a small dog. “If 30
dogs were found living in this house, the county or town would have found homes
for them! But these Latino immigrants were treated worse than
dogs!
“They were thrown out into the street, here at ground zero,
around the corner from the very place that racists burned one family out and
almost killed two other Mexican day laborers five years
ago.”
Ramirez told Workers World that the police and the Suffolk
County government were conducting an “ethnic cleansing campaign against
Latino immigrants, trying to drive these people out of the
county.”
Nadia Marin Molina, director of the Workplace Project, the
main group organizing jornaleros on Long Island, told Workers World that the
issue of the day laborers in Farmingville points to the crisis in housing
throughout the region.
Recently, the Workplace Project was called to
defend Latino tenants facing eviction from an apartment in Farming dale, in
Nassau County. That building houses 150 immigrant families.
Latino
jornaleros in other parts of Long Island are often homeless. They face arrest
for loitering.
In Suffolk, County Supervisor Levy tried to deputize the
police force to arrest undocumented workers. Protests made Levy retreat from
this threat. But Marin Molina said that if homeless workers are arrested for
loitering, they will be turned over to the Immigration and Natural i zation
Service for incarceration and deportation.
“The jornaleros are the
most exploited workers in the U.S. At this moment their demand is housing, and
housing is an issue for everyone. This is an issue many people can organize
around, because housing is a right—here in Farmingville and across the
country.”
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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