Lucero’s Tragic Death Must Be the Last: NYT Editorial Calls Elected Official to Take Action
December 4th, 2008

The tragic death of Marcelo Lucero has brought to light the mistreatment, abuses, and murders of immigrants across the nation; and as a result, for the first time in a long time, people are paying closer attention to the crisis created by a divisive immigration debate.

In a telling sign of the changing times, on the Wednesday prior toThanksgiving, The New York Times ran an editorial asking Suffolk County Executive, Steve Levy, to show true leadership in light of Lucero's death.

"There is a way for him to make Suffolk a better place.  He can give the jobs of deportation and border control back to the federal government and concentrate on making things safer and more lawful in his community.  He can stand up for the rights of the undocumented, like day laborers, to congregate safely and to be paid for their work, to prevent federal crimes like wage theft and to keep off-the-books businesses from eroding pay and conditions for all workers.

He can pursue common ground with his Latino constituents - even those who are angry at him but would jump at the chance to sit down and talk. He can listen to Marcelo Lucero's brother, Joselo, who has been a voice for peace.  He can lead his county into the calm silence of reconciliation instead of silence based on fear."

In their editorial, the NYT editors are clear that Suffolk County is not the only place where hate crimes are happening.  The editors write:

"Suffolk is not the only place with hate crimes or fearful immigrants.  The same silence ruled in Postville, Iowa, where children worked brutal hours on a slaughterhouse killing floor.  It hung over a factory in New Bedford, Mass., that systematically cheated workers of wages and the Mississippi shipyards where legal guest workers were held in modern-day indentured servitude.

The silence of undocumented immigrants is the catastrophic silence of people taught by legislative harassment and relentless stereotyping to live mute and afraid."
 

They go on to say that the answer does not lie in local officers becoming immigration officials:

"The fixation on uprooting and expelling immigrants is negative because it doesn't work. It's inflammatory because it tears communities and families apart.

When you turn the local police into la migra, as Mr. Levy once tried to do, you turn immigrants into the mute prey of criminals.  When you relentlessly pick fights with advocates who criticize you, as Mr. Levy has, you are unable to stand with them when disaster strikes.

And when you tolerate the poisonous notion that ‘illegal' is a stain that can never be erased, with no path to atonement, then you turn the undocumented into a permanent class of presumed criminals who have no rights.

The undocumented do have rights.  They have the right to be paid for their labor, to speak freely and to congregate in public places without fear."

At NCLR, we are hopeful that Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy and other government officials read this NYT editorial and take its message to heart.  We still have the chance to redeem Lucero's tragic death.

Read the full editorial: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/opinion/26wed1.html?ref=opinion