Text size:

Suffolk OKs worker bill

BY JAMES T. MADORE | Newsday Staff Writer

September 20, 2006

The Suffolk legislature overwhelmingly approved County Executive Steve Levy's controversial immigrant workers bill yesterday despite widespread acknowledgment by lawmakers that the measure will have little impact on the problems tied to undocumented workers and already has increased racial tensions.

Legislators who supported the resolution joined with opponents in criticizing Levy for bringing it forward, saying he should have acted administratively. Some accused Levy of playing politics with a divisive issue. Others said they were forced to vote "yea" because to do otherwise would be "political suicide."

For Levy, a Democrat and staunch advocate of stemming the flow of undocumented immigrants into the United States, yesterday's 15-3 vote in the Democrat-controlled legislature represented a major victory. Previous initiatives, including empowering local police to enforce federal immigration statutes, were blocked by the then-GOP majority.

Passage of the immigrant workers bill, which requires county contractors to file sworn affidavits that their employees are eligible to work in this country, will "ensure that all businesses getting county tax dollars are following federal law, and that no one company is gaining an unfair advantage by engaging in the illegal, underground economy," Levy said. "The legislature took a bold step forward today in the name of fairness and equity."

Three legislators who voted "nay" - Ricardo Montano (D-Central Islip), Elie Mystal (D-Amityville) and Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Setauket) - disagreed, predicting an increase in discrimination.

"If this is political suicide, so be it. I have never wanted a [political] office so much that I would compromise my conscience," said Viloria-Fisher.

Legis. Kate M. Browning (WFP-Shirley), while voting for the bill, decried how it has divided the community, particularly organized labor. "This bill has been a horrible bill. ... People think it will make changes, but it won't."

Majority Leader Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor) agreed, saying Levy "better not even think about introducing anything like this again."

Levy's bill, the first in the state, seeks to strengthen a 20-year-old federal worker verification law. And starting Jan. 1, Suffolk will require businesses, charities, town governments and other contractors to verify they are in compliance with that federal statute.

Failure to do so could lead to fines of up to $2,000 or 6 months in jail or both for a first offense, and permanent exclusion from future contracts after a third offense.

The measure affects 6,000 of Suffolk's 10,000 contracts, including those that are 100-percent county-funded and all public works contracts.

Union leaders representing electricians, insulators, painters and laborers said their wages and jobs were being undermined by builders who hire the undocumented to avoid paying prevailing wages and benefits.

The legislature's nonpartisan Budget Review Office estimated the price tag for monitoring contractors could be as much as $332,000 per year.

Before the vote, the Long Island Immigrant Alliance, Jobs with Justice, the New York Civil Liberties Union and other opponents brought out a wooden coffin draped in black to symbolize their contention that Levy's bill is "burying the [U.S.] Constitution" by seeking to supplant federal law.

Speakers expressed a mixture of sorrow and anger at the legislature's decision but vowed to derail Levy's resolution through legal challenges.

The Rev. Allan B. Ramirez, an advocate for Latinos, compared Levy's bill to the South's segregation laws in the 1960s. "Mr. Levy may be fond of saying that his position on immigration is very popular," said Ramirez, "but so were the laws of the old South, and that did not make them right."

Statute details

The Suffolk legislation will apply to all county contracts entered into on or after Jan. 1 including:

Contracts with private businesses, ranging from construction companies to various consultants.

Contracts with nonprofit groups, charities and religious organizations that provide such services as soup kitchens and training programs.

Contracts with town governments.