VivirLatino

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.”