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A call to reject worker verification bill

BY JAMES T. MADORE | Newsday Staff Writer

August 9, 2006

Immigrants and union leaders implored the Suffolk County Legislature yesterday to reject County Executive Steve Levy's proposal to require county contractors to certify every year that their employees are eligible to work in the United States.

Nearly a dozen speakers questioned the need for Levy's bill and predicted that, if it became law, hate crimes and discrimination would soar. They challenged Levy to support his claim that federal officials are failing to enforce a 20-year-old law requiring worker verification.

The denunciations came as the resolution formally entered consideration in the legislature, in which 14 of 18 members told Newsday they support the bill. A public hearing is set for Aug. 22 at 5:30 p.m. in Hauppauge.

"This is anti-immigrant and will lead to discrimination against anyone who doesn't have white skin and blue eyes," Cesar A. Malaga of the Hispanic American Association told lawmakers. "Mr. Levy and most of you are just looking for publicity. But most of you forget that your parents and grandparents were immigrants," Malaga said.

Rony Martinez of the Workplace Project, a Hempstead-based immigrant advocacy group, agreed, urging Suffolk to ensure that workers are paid prevailing wages and benefits. "We just ask that, if this legislature wants to really help against worker exploitation, we can help you write a better law than this," Martinez said in Spanish.

Levy later shot back: "If this is a duplicative bill or a solution in search of a problem, then why are these extremist groups so hysterical over the proposal? The public is savvy enough to see through the race-baiting and over-the-top criticism that extremist groups resort to when they can't make a cogent argument on the merits."

Before the legislature, Luis Valenzuela, executive director of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, said the measure would spur divisiveness. He cited a U.S. Government Accountability Office report that he said found 10 percent of employers began discriminating against job applicants after enactment of the 1986 federal regulation.

Patrick Young, program director of the Central American Refugee Center, attacked provisions in the bill that could jail contractors for up to six months for knowingly filing a false affidavit about their employees' legal status and permanently exclude a contractor from county work upon a third offense. He asked why Levy didn't include anti-discrimination language in the federal law.

Representatives of 1199SEIU, the state health-care union and a major contributor to Levy campaigns, also denounced the bill.

Jim McAsey of the Jobs With Justice campaign termed the message of the legislation "toxic."