The following information may be helpful in assisting citizens and immigration reform groups to get their local community to enforce immigration laws.

A MUST: It is very important to find out if public money is
proposed to be used to build, create studies, initiate, maintain,
secure etc. this hiring hall for illegals.  If it is then, using our
county of Suffolk NY as a model, you can proceed legally to
sue in civil court all public officials who vote or propose it
for their personal assets ......
 
If public money is used the county officials will be creating
illegality using the following legal references mentioned
in the following letter:
 
COUNTY OF SUFFOLK
OFFICE OF THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE
April 4, 2001
Presiding Officer Paul J. Tonna
And Members of the Suffolk County Legislature
William H. Rogers Legislative Building
Veterans Memorial Highway
Smithtown, New York 11787
Re: Resolution No. 220-01, Designating Catholic Charities As Contract Agency For Funding Included In The 2001 Operating Budget

Dear Presiding Officer Torina and Members of the Suffolk County Legislature:

I am returning Resolution No. 220-01, Designating Catholic Charities As Contract Agency For Funding In The 2001 Operating Budget, vetoed.

The resolution designates $80,000 from the Suffolk County Department of Labor 2001 Operating Budget to Catholic Charities to enable the agency to initiate a community opportunity center in Farmingville, New York. Catholic Charities has proposed to develop the multi-purpose immigration center for educational, legal and referral services to assist Brookhaven’s growing immigrant population, including the many day-laborers seeking employment from the area’s contractors.

Catholic Charities has a notable record of helping new immigrants transition into communities through their existing network of shape-up sites in various regions of the country. These centers have helped to provide some relief to communities beset by social tensions and other problems associated with day laborers soliciting work along widely used roadways. These same problems have greatly impacted the quality of life for the residents of Farmingville.

I strongly believe that social and humanitarian issues require actions, and that local communities in conjunction with faith-based organizations are well suited for this challenge. However, I do not believe that it is county government’s proper role to initiate a government supported and sanctioned infrastructure for purportedly illegal hiring practices. Undocumented workers work “off the books” and violate immigration, tax and labor laws. Clearly, they represent only half the equation: their employers also fail to comply with the law — and sometimes exploit the day-laborers’ legal vulnerability by failing to pay fair labor wages.

The statutory foundation of United States immigration law has always been the jurisdiction of the federal government, Congress and the federal courts. The preeminent laws concerning the employment of undocumented workers are found in the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. §~ 1101-1503), as amended by the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 CIRCA). The policy goal of IRCA was to “close the back door on illegal immigration so that the front door on legal immigration may remain open.” The statute attempts to achieve this goal by making it more difficult for employers to hire undocumented workers. See H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 99-682, pt. I (1986). Despite Congress’ intent and our repeated requests, the federal government has failed to adequately enforce the applicable immigration and labor laws concerning undocumented workers in Farrningville. And yet, it is a crime to assist an alien who lacks employment authorization by referring him to an employer, or by acting as his or her employer,