Cristina Jimenez
Suffolk County Legislature refuses to learn from Riverside, NJ
With the goal of promoting immigration policies that work for all and to prevent Suffolk County from making a mistake by passing anti-immigrant legislation, Long Island Wins, a public information campaign working to highlight the contributions of immigrants on Long Island, held a panel discussion last Tuesday, Don't Make Our Mistakes: Lessons from Riverside, New Jersey in the Costs of Attacking Immigrants, to present the devastating economic impact of anti-immigration legislation and the contributions that immigrants bring to our communities. The conclusion of the panel was clear, anti-immigrant legislation hurts the economy, divides the community, and creates intolerance and an undesired bad reputation for our towns.
David Verduin, a local business owner and President of the Riverside Coalition of Business Owners and Landlords, shared with us that after the passage of anti-immigrant legislation Riverside’s businesses lost 50% of sales and many mom-and-pop shops closed after more than a 100 years of existence. But the town’s economy wasn’t the only one hurt, the greater consequence, as David mentioned, was the bad reputation that the town gained nationwide. Mathew Crosson, President of the Long Island Association, agreed with Mr. Verduin’s remarks. Mr. Crosson believes that anti-immigrant legislation can have a long lasting impact on Long Island, pointing out that young people looking into places to raise their families wouldn’t move into towns that are perceived as not tolerant.
Mr. Verduin and Mr. Crosson seem to be agreeing with a growing number of states that are realizing that anti-immigrant legislation causes more damages than gains. But it seems that the Suffolk County legislature refuses to learn from Riverside’s experience. Last Thursday, the Presiding Officer of the Suffolk County Legislature, William J. Lindsay, pushed the anti-immigrant bill IR 1105 out of committee and announced that it will be brought before the entire legislature Tuesday, April 29. I’m not surprised that although invited, Lindsay and his supporters did not attend the panel discussion. Riverside NJ, learned the lessons of the cost of attacking immigrants through anti-immigrant legislation, but when is the Suffolk County Legislature going to get it? I hope is not after making a mistake.
Posted at 7:55 PM, Apr 21, 2008 in Immigration | Permalink | Comments (4)
Comments
Why is enforcement of Immigration Laws anti Immigrant. I think the issues in Riverside are way overstated and I would like to better understand what interests David Verduin really has in this situation.
Posted by: Jay Dee | April 22, 2008 02:39 PM
Jay, thanks for you comment. David Verduin is a Riverside resident and a business owner who witnessed the events that occurred after the town passed an ordinance that would have penalized anyone who employed or rented to undocumented immigrants. As I mentioned, the economy was hurt (thousands left the town) and Mr. Verduin witnessed the closing of many businesses, and the division and tension that developed in the town. Based on this experience, Mr. Verduin wants to prevent other towns or localities to go through this. At the end of the day, as Mr. Verduin said, he just wants to live in a peaceful and healthy town. The problem is not the enforcement of immigration laws, but the fact that our immigration system is outdated and broken.
Posted by: Cristina Jimenez | April 22, 2008 05:17 PM
Cristina brings up a good point: our current immigration system. The immigration debate seems to be wrongly rooted in the idea of what to do with the huge number of undocumented individuals living in the US. The Riverside ordinance highlights exactly what not to do. The reality of the immigration situation needs to be how to assimilate these individuals into society, the economy, politics, etc. Assimilation, not deportation or penalization, is the only logical and necessary course of action to take.
The Riverside misfortune evidences that there is a need at the Federal level to pass effective and lasting immigration legislation. The establishment of an umbrella-type immigration policy is the first step to adapting to the current immigration situation.
Posted by: Alyssa Richardson | April 23, 2008 08:47 PM
You forgot to mention that he acts as a paid interpreter and now as a paid speaker. He owns a local business and many of those in town (I live in riverside) that own businesses also own real estate. If you owned a rental property that would normally rent for 1000/month to a family, and you could rent the same property to 12-14 adult illegal immigrants for 200 each per month (or more) what side of the fence would you be on? That is what was happening in this town. 1 long time "mom/pop" business in town closed, it was a hardware store, what never gets mentioned is the fact that less than 1 mile away a "home-depot" and a "lowes" opened in the last 2 years or so. And the owner of the hardware store RETIRED and this was his plan for a long time. Many of the businesses that closed were opened to cater to the illegal immigrant population, and a few of them, when they opened, had signs in their windows "americans not welcomed", the signs came down fast, but the citizens remembered and they never patronized them. The population of a town swells from approx. 8000 to 12000 with no new construction and services are strained. These ILLEGAL immigrants do not want to stay here, they don't want to build lives and assimilate like those of the past, they want to come here and make money and go home PERIOD.
Posted by: bill | May 9, 2008 11:24 PM