More “Local” News

A judge has ruled that Mamaroneck Village and police harassed day laborers.  The Journal News reports that Mamaroneck’s village officials and its police harassed day laborers in a racially motivated attempt to reduce the number of men who waited on the streets for work, a federal judge has ruled. “There is thus no question, on this record, that the campaign of aggressive law enforcement instigated by the village police in the Columbus Park area was aimed at and disproportionately affected Latino day laborers and the contractors who sought to hire them,” wrote federal court Judge Colleen McMahon in the 70-page decision handed down yesterday. A PDF of a fax of the order is online here, http://www.thejournalnews.com/assets/pdf/BH506271120.PDF The decision was a clear victory for the the six anonymous plaintiffs – four from Guatemala and one each from Mexico and El Salvador – and for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. The case was one of the first of its kind in the Northeast, where suburban municipalities continue to grapple with how to effectively manage an influx of temporary immigrant workers.   Click here for the story.

A short while back, we posted MALDEF’s toolkit on local immigrationordinances.  National Immigration Forum also has prepared as toolkit on local ordinances.  It is at Download local_anti_immigrant_responses_advocates.pdf

KJ