Lisa Votino-Tarrant
Don’t Make Our Mistakes: Lessons from Riverside, NJ
Long Island (Suffolk County in particular), like many other communities around the United States, has been facing different legislation aimed at solving the national immigration issue locally.
Long Island WINS researched how anti-immigration legislation affected communities after they were passed and went into effect. We found an intriguing example in a small community in New Jersey that had such an ordinance passed in 2006. The ordinance said that employers who hired an illegal immigrant and landlords who rented to them would be fined $1,000 - $2,000 per incident and could possibly lose their business license.
Knowing that they were not wanted in Riverside, undocumented immigrants left and moved to other communities, and with them the contributions and money they made and spent in Riverside. After the community suffered the negative economic impacts of such an ordinance for a year, the ordinance was repealed.
Instead of writing history, Long Island WINS wants people to learn from it. On April 15th at Touro College Law Center in Central Islip, we will be having a panel discussion entitled - Long Island WINS Presents - Don't Make Our Mistakes: Lessons from Riverside, NJ in the costs of attacking immigrants.
The panel will feature David Verduin, Business owner and president of the Riverside, NJ Coalition of Business Owners and Landlords; Matthew T. Crosson, Esq., President of the Long Island Association; David Nyce, Mayor of Greenport Village; & Professor Mariano Torras, Ph.D, Author of The Economic Impact of the Hispanic Population on Long Island, New York. The discussion will be moderated by Andrea Batista Schlesinger, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.
We are very appreciative that our panelists and moderator have agreed to share their experiences with us. We hope that as many members of the Long Island community, especially elected officials and business owners, will join us for an educational opportunity to avoid a preventable disaster.
For more information and to RSVP, click here
Lisa Votino-Tarrant: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 7:25 AM, Apr 10, 2008 in Immigration
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Comments
This looks like a great panel in a place where it's sorely needed. Suffolk County and its Exec. Steve Levy have, in my view, unreasonably demonized undocumented immigrants. Has Mr. Levy been invited? Will he attend? I hope you post the session as I cannot get out to CI to attend.
Posted by: Daniel Millstone | April 10, 2008 08:23 AM
Yes Mr. Levy has been invited, as well as every other elected official on Long Island. The last I checked there were two Suffolk County Legislators attending and one sending a staff member.
To be honest, I highly doubt Mr. Levy will attend, although it would be awesome if he did. Being that I live in Suffolk County, I fear what the impact of some of these bills will be economically if passed.
And you are in luck. The event will be taped and we will be adding it to our website www.longislandwins.com. I suggest signing up to receive updates from us. Thanks!
Posted by: Lisa Votino-Tarrant | April 10, 2008 09:50 AM
Unfortunately, people tend to forget the fact that "Illegal" immigrants are ILLEGAL. The money spent over time as a result of the massive amount of illegals (who don't pay taxes and export our money back to their countries, and take jobs away from legal immigrants) in the town of Riverside effected them just as much over the years as the exiting of the Illegals did. However, it seems that Riverside, NJ could not afford the potential legal battle brought on by rights activist groups, based on a similar pennsylvania event, and that is why it was overturned.
I have no problems with Immigrants, as we all are decendents of immigration of some type or another. However, people who are ILLEGALLY here should not be given the same rights as the hard earned LEGAL immigrants that worked their butts off to enjoy our society. They deserve to be here and should be given benefits over the illegals.
We should be focusing on how to make it easier for these people to become LEGAL and pay their taxes like the rest of us, instead of rewarding illegal behaviors. Get it straight people!
Posted by: anonomous | October 31, 2008 03:38 PM
Unfortunately, people tend to forget the fact that "Illegal" immigrants are ILLEGAL. The money spent over time as a result of the massive amount of illegals (who don't pay taxes and export our money back to their countries, and take jobs away from legal immigrants) in the town of Riverside effected them just as much over the years as the exiting of the Illegals did. However, it seems that Riverside, NJ could not afford the potential legal battle brought on by rights activist groups, based on a similar pennsylvania event, and that is why it was overturned.
I have no problems with Immigrants, as we all are decendents of immigration of some type or another. However, people who are ILLEGALLY here should not be given the same rights as the hard earned LEGAL immigrants that worked their butts off to enjoy our society. They deserve to be here and should be given benefits over the illegals.
We should be focusing on how to make it easier for these people to become LEGAL and pay their taxes like the rest of us, instead of rewarding illegal behaviors. Get it straight people!
Posted by: anonymous | October 31, 2008 03:40 PM
Speak your mind! Get a custom t-shirt, bumper sticker, hat, etc. I do all RIVERSIDE specific items at www.zazzle.com/jason0376
Posted by: Riverside Rocks | February 11, 2009 11:25 AM
Speak your mind! Get a custom t-shirt, bumper sticker, hat, etc. I do all RIVERSIDE specific items at www.zazzle.com/jason0376
Posted by: Riverside Rocks | February 11, 2009 11:41 AM