|
News and Research
|
|
NEWSDAY: Immigrants Take a Stand 5/2/2006 Hundreds of thousands nationwide refrain from working to prove what the country would be like without their contributions > > BY BART JONES > > Newsday Staff Writer On a typical Monday morning during spring, the 7-Eleven on Horseblock Road and Blue Point Road in Farmingville attracts a crowd of about 100 Mexican day laborers hungry for work. Yesterday at 7:15 a.m., it was a virtual day laborer ghost town: Six men stood in a lonely cluster waiting for contractors who were nowhere to be seen. It was a "Day Without Immigrants," part of a nationwide work stoppage and consumer boycott aimed at educating Americans as to the economic clout of immigrants and pressuring lawmakers in Washington to create a legal path to citizenship for the country's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants -- including 100,000 on Long Island. From Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., Hempstead to Farmingville, hundreds of thousands of mostly Latino workers skipped work and took to the streets for rallies in support of immigration reform. The protests slowed many industries and shut down some farming operations. Many Long Island businesses closed in sympathy, and hundreds of students stayed home, with the absentee rate in the Brentwood public schools, for example, soaring from the typical 10 percent to 35 percent. "This nation was started by immigrants and we all have the right to be here," El Salvador native Erika Arriaza, 18, said at a rally in Hempstead that attracted approximately 3,000 people. "We have the right to help our families." Organizer Nadia Marin-Molina of the Workplace Project, an immigration advocacy group in Hempstead, called the rally the largest political demonstration by immigrants in Long Island's history. Many came despite false rumors of widespread immigration raids that have swept the nation in the past week. "As a community we have been emboldened," said Latino activist the Rev. Allan Ramirez of the Brookville Reformed Church. "We will not accept the crumbs anymore." Nationwide, huge crowds turned out to protest. An estimated 400,000 gathered in Chicago in early afternoon, and hundreds of thousands attended rallies in Los Angeles and New York City, where immigrants and their supporters formed human chains in the streets during lunch time in all five boroughs. Smaller rallies took place in more than 50 cities across the nation, even in places as seemingly removed from the immigration debate as South Dakota. "We are the backbone of what America is; legal or illegal, it doesn't matter," said Melanie Lugo, who was among thousands attending a rally in Denver with her husband and third-grade daughter. "We butter each other's bread. They need us as much as we need them." In the Los Angeles area, normally bustling restaurants and markets were dark, and truckers avoided the nation's largest shipping port. In downtown Los Angeles, it appeared about one in three small businesses were closed, according to news reports. Latino strongholds on Long Island, including Brentwood, Farmingville and Hempstead, were hard hit, with most Hispanic-owned businesses -- restaurants, travel agencies, bakeries, money-wiring stores and supermarkets including the major chain Compare -- closing, apparently more out of sympathy than necessity. Businesses in Latino neighborhoods that opened found themselves with few customers. Mexico native Jessica Gonzalez, 28, an agent at DCAP Insurance Brokerage in Brentwood, said that normally, "Mondays are crazy. The phone doesn't stop ringing. It's usually full. Today, it's empty." Day laborer gathering spots across Long Island were largely deserted yesterday morning. Ramirez, who made an early morning tour, said no workers were at a site in Locust Valley that normally attracts 50 to 75 immigrants or at one on Willis Avenue in Roslyn Heights that draws 75 to 100. At a spot in New Cassel, where about 350 usually gather along a three-quarter-mile stretch, two showed up, he said. A reporter who visited the Farmingville site found only six workers waiting for contractors to come. "My heart made me close my business to help my brothers and legalize them," said business leader Santiago Reyes, a Salvadoran native and U.S. citizen who shuttered his Comalapa restaurant in Brentwood. The nationwide protest was provoked in part by a proposed bill that would turn undocumented immigrants into felons, criminalize humanitarian aide to them, and lead to construction of a 700-mile wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill, which has foundered, was a response to widespread concern over illegal immigration, which has changed the face of many American towns and cities. Immigrant activists contend that since Ellis Island shut down in 1954 and the "bracero" guest worker program for Mexican migrants ended in 1964, virtually no channel has existed for low-skilled workers from impoverished regions in Latin America to come to the United States legally. "They keep calling us criminals, but we are really hard-working people," said Jennifer Mendez, 11, a fifth-grader at Walnut Street School in Uniondale who skipped class to attend the Hempstead rally with her family. The nationwide work stoppage was not unified or endorsed by all pro-immigrant groups, and by all appearances hardly paralyzed the economy. But it did make a dent in some industries heavily dependent on immigrants. None of the 175 seasonal laborers who normally work Mike Collins' 500 acres of Vidalia onion fields in southeastern Georgia showed up yesterday. "We need to be going wide open this time of the year to get these onions out of the fields," he said. "We've got orders to fill. Losing a day in this part of the season causes a tremendous amount of problems." Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat producer,closed about a dozen of its more than 100 plants and saw "higher-than-usual absenteeism" at others, spokesman Gary Michaelson said. Most of the closures were in states such as Iowa and Nebraska. Poultry plants also closed in North Carolina and Georgia.> > > Some rallies drew small numbers ofcounter-protestors. "You should send all of the 13 million aliens home, then you take all of the welfare recipients who are taking a free check and make them do those jobs," retired Army Col. Jack Culberson said at a rally in Pensacola, Fla. But many protestors hailed the day as an historic moment in the burgeoning immigration reform movement. Holding a sign at the Chicago rally with the names of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Pancho Villa on it, concrete worker Ernest Calderon said, "Our heroes understood that they had to fight for freedom and democracy, and we are here doing the same."
Staff writers Jennifer Sinco Kelleher and Peter Clark contributed to this story, which was supplemented by an Associated Press report. Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Inc. This article originally appeared at: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi0502,0,1321243.story?coll=ny-li-mezz Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com
|
|
CONTRIBUTIONS OF LATINOS TO LONG ISLAND ECONOMY—May 2007
The Economic Impact of the Hispanic Population on Long Island, New York. Report written by Mariano Torras, PhD of Adelphi University, for the Horace Hagedorn Foundation. Documents information regarding the Latino community on Long Island, highlighting the economic contributions of this sector of the population. One example: our buying power of $4.4 billion. Link to this report at:
|
