You know things are bad in the Long Island economy when the undocumented immigrant workers start to leave. Anecdotal evidence from the front lines of community resources that provide services for immigrants suggests that many are leaving for greener pastures. Those of us who regularly pass hiring sites may realize that the throng of willing and able workers is all but dissipated.
For the past few years, County Executive Steve Levy has led a charge to crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Suffolk County recently passed a law that requires county contractors to use e-verify, a free internet based service run by the Dept of Homeland security, to certify employment eligibility of their workers. All of the bellyaching about immigrants taking jobs, burdening the school systems, emergency rooms and the like that pitted Hispanic community groups against one another and the county has met a greater decider – the economy.
The sole motivation for any undocumented worker to defy U. S. Law Enforcement and take a back-breaking journey to America is work. If they cannot find work in a community, they will move on to where the jobs are. Perhaps their presence or lack thereof can be viewed as yet another barometer of the economic reality in any community. When times are good, we will see them and complain, and when times are not, they disappear, depriving us of the access to cheap labor that we have all come to depend on. It is a double-edged sword.
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