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Oyster Bay Long Island Ordinance Targeting Latino Day Laborers Halted

6:56 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|Labor|New York · Comments Off

21 May 2010

That was fast. An Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY ordinance targeting Latino day laborers seeking work was shot down yesterday by a Federal Judge, who issued a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of the law until a full hearing on the matter on May 28th.
The decision came following a lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union

The law used the excuse of public safety, claiming that day laborers seeking work in Farmingdale and Locust Valley presented a danger to pedestrians and drivers. Most Latino immigrant workers and their supporters say the law was racial profiling and anti-immigrant.

For now day laborers can return to seeking work in order to provide for themselves and their familias.

An Anti-Migrant/Anti-Latino NY Governor : Steve Levy and His Albany Aspirations

2:20 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|New York|Politics · 2 Comments

11 Jan 2010

If NYC Michael Bloomberg is to be praised for his recent pro-immigrant statements, then what of Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy? Democrat Levy recently announced that he was thinking of running for New York State Governor, eliciting a strong response from NY State Assembly members, who threatened to out Levy’s contributors and call for a boycott. Porque? Seems like Levy has a Latino problem. Not in that Latinos don’t like Levy, pero in that he doesn’t like Latinos, or at the very least doesn’t respect their lives.

Under Levy, Suffolk County has attempted to pass anti-immigrant laws. When Marcelo Lucero was killed, Levy called his death a one day story. A report by the Southern Poverty Law center demonstrated that all Latinos, regardless of legal status, lived in a state of fear in Suffolk County.

El Diario/La Prensa writes in an editorial last week:

Levy has urged police to detain Hispanics on the suspicion that they are undocumented. This is called racial profiling. It is a racist statement.

During Levy’s tenure, a wave of hate attacks has taken place in Suffolk. The police department is being investigated for not resolving these cases. The hostility and violence in Suffolk has provoked an ongoing federal investigation into hate crimes and police conduct.

For years, Levy has quite willingly demonstrated inflammatory, combative and divisive leadership. His anti-immigration positions have crossed the line repeatedly into racial profiling.

Levy affirms he is not anti-immigrant:

“It’s insulting and the answer is: Absolutely not,” the county executive said when I asked him if he is indeed a supremacist. “My position on immigration is pretty much the same as President Obama’s – in favor of legal immigration against illegal immigration.”

“And remember this is the same crew that was telling then Gov. Spitzer that licenses for illegal aliens was good idea and was supported by the base of his constituency. There was a near overthrow of this government when that was proposed.”

Waving, Standing, Breathing While Latino In Long Island, NY Dangerous

4:15 pm By Maegan La Mala · Immigration|Labor|New York · 28 Comments

27 Dec 2009

I don’t why people are surprised or fail to make the link. Long Island, while geographically includes parts of NYC, specifically Brooklyn and Queens, really means east of those boroughs, Nassau and Suffolk County specifically. Suffolk County is where Marcelo Lucero was killed. In the fall, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a report revealing just how rampant anti-Latino/anti-immigrant sentiment was in the county where Lucero lived and died.

Oyster Bay, Nassau County, Long Island has now put into effect an ordinance that pretty much makes it illegal to exist as a Latino outside your home. From the NY Times:

This Nassau County town of 300,000 people has passed perhaps the most stringent of ordinances attempting to control immigrant day laborers: a law that makes even waving one’s hand punishable by a $250 fine.

“The term ‘solicitation of employment’ includes, but is not limited to, shouting at cars, waving arms or signs, making hand signals, approaching motor vehicles or standing in public roads facing in the direction of oncoming traffic,” reads Ordinance 205-32, which the Town Board passed unanimously Sept. 29.

Remembering Marcelo Lucero : Images and Thoughts from Vigil in Patchogue, Long Island

11:40 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Ecuador|Family|Immigration|New York|Violence · 8 Comments

8 Nov 2009

On Saturday evening I took the trip from NYC into it’s suburbs, specifically Patchogue, Long Island. On about an hour and a half drive out there, it’s easier to try and understand why immigrant communities are more isolated and why Lucero’s family and his case hasn’t gotten the support that it deserves. At only 5:30 at night, the streets were dark and isolated and I remembered the Southern Poverty Law Center report telling of people being driven off the rode and not walking alone after dark. This is a stark contrast to my immigrant hood where yes, people look over their shoulders and put their heads down as they pass the police that patrol, but it never stops. The traffic, the hum of conversation, musica and children. Stores stay open late as do restaurants. In Patchogue, at the end of a road that led to the tracks of the Long Island Railroad, a crowd of a few hundred gathered where Ecuadorian immigrant Marcelo Lucero was killed by a gang of racist youth to remember.

Remembering Marcelo Lucero, One Year Later from VivirLatino on Vimeo.

Images from November 7, 2009 vigil remembering Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant killed in Patchogue, Long Island in a hate crime.

The Lucero family asked that the vigil not be political, rather that the message stay focused on peace and unity and everyone in attendance respected the wishes of the family, I will do that as well by not inserting political commentary here but rather just showing what I saw, heard, and felt.

Marcelo Lucero Vigil : America the Beautiful from VivirLatino on Vimeo.

Scenes from vigil in memory of Marcelo Lucero. 11-07-09 Patchogue, Long Island, NY.

Vigil for Marcelo LuceroThis Evening in Patchogue, Long Island, NY

11:17 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Events|Immigration|Justice|New York · Comments Off

7 Nov 2009

marcelo-lucero

Vigil in Memory of Marcelo Lucero
Saturday November, 7th @ 6:00pm
RailRoad Ave. Patchogue, NY
Religious Service to follow at Congregational Church 7:30pm

My family’s wish is to create a new environment of peace and unity for our community. We would like to invite members of all communities to share in the vigil in memory of my dear brother, Marcelo Lucero, on Saturday November 7 at 6pm next to the train station where he lost his life. Following the vigil, we will walk to the Congregational Church of Patchogue located on Main Street for a religious ceremony scheduled for 7:30pm. We request from all who attend to wear a white t-shirt in solidarity to share in this day of peace, healing and hope. Our message is no more violence but peace, no more racism but instead brotherhood and no more abuse rather respect.

During the vigil, we will collect donations for the Marcelo Lucero Scholarship that I created last year for the students of Patchogue-Medford HS and monies will also be used to send a mural to Gualaceo, Ecuador, which was created by Pat-Med students as a symbol of peace. If your organization would like to send a contribution in advance please write checks to: Marcelo Lucero Scholarship and send it directly to the Patchogue-Medford HS, 181 Buffalo Avenue, Medford, New York 11763.

Please be advised that this event will not be used for any political agendas. We would like to thank you in advance for your support and for respecting our wishes.

En Solidarity,
Joselo Lucero and family

One of Marcelo Lucero’s Attackers Pleads Guilty

4:11 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · crime|Justice|New York|Violence · 1 Comment

5 Nov 2009

While I was writing my reflections on the anniversary of the hate motivated killing of Marcelo Lucero, , one of his attackers plead guilty to a variety of charges. Nicholas Hausch, 18, pleaded guilty to first-degree gang assault, fourth-degree conspiracy, second-degree assault as a hate crime and second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime.

Hausch’s plea is apparently part of a deal in exchange for information on what happened the night Lucero was brutally attacked. Hausch had no problem yelling slurs at Lucero almost a year ago, but had problems speaking up before a judge.

In a barely audible voice, Hausch answered a prosecutor’s questions about the events that led to the slaying, admitting that he and his six co-defendants set out to search for Latinos to attack.

“Keep your voice up, young man,” the judge said to Hausch twice during the teen’s admissions.

Responding to questions from Assistant District Attorney Meghan O’Donnell, Hausch detailed three attacks he was involved in on Nov. 8, including the Lucero killing.

Before coming across Lucero, Hausch said the group pursued another man. “I got out of the car and I chased him. We were yelling at him,” calling him a derogatory name, he said….

Hausch faces 5 to 25 years in prison on the gang assault charge and will not be sentenced until the prosecution of the other six defendants is completed.

Via / Newsday

Remembering Marcelo Lucero : One Year Later, The List of Hate Crimes Grows Longer

12:18 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · crime|Immigration|Justice|New York|Violence · 4 Comments

5 Nov 2009

There is much remembering that one year ago the United States elected it’s first person of color president. The U.S. was overwhelmed with bold, bright promises of hope and change. People wept, and I was among them. The start of the Obama era marked the end of the Bush era and hopefully would mean policy changes that would directly impact the everyday lives of all people pero yes, for people of color and immigrants there was a special hope. Hope that immigration reform that would keep all families together and value the lives of people who live and work in the shadows and out in the open.

But then something happened that many thought wasn’t supposed to happen anymore. Weren’t we post-racial? Days after Barack Obama became the president-elect a group of teenagers in Patchogue, Long Island, NY hung out doing what they did about once a week. “Beaner jumping”. That’s what they called it when they went out looking for anyone who looked Latino (they don’t care what kind of “beaner” you are) so they could assault them. That night the young men were out for blood though and they killed Marcelo Lucero.
Read more…

The Problem With Comprehensive Immigration Reform Messaging: Almost Marcelo Lucero

9:11 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration|New York|Violence · 1 Comment

17 Aug 2009

43427060 While many from D.C. and the internetosphere were at Netroots Nation discussing messaging and Comprehensive Immigration Refrom, another Latino was attacked and in the same ‘hood where Marcelo Lucero was murdered.

From AP:

NEW YORK — A Hispanic man told investigators he was beaten and robbed in a racially charged attack in a Long Island community where another Hispanic was killed in an alleged hate crime last fall, police said.

The latest incident happened around 11:30 p.m. Friday in Patchogue, where the earlier attack prompted a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into allegations of hate crimes on eastern Long Island.

The victim in the latest episode told investigators that three young white men called him over and engaged him in conversation as he walked along Division Avenue in Patchogue, about 50 miles east of Manhattan.

One man then hit him in the face and knocked him to the ground, and the three stole cash and other items from him while making disparaging remarks about his ancestry, he told police. Police didn’t release his name and age, and they said Sunday that they didn’t immediately know whether he had been taken to a hospital.

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