Most of today's immigrants come from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the former Soviet Union and are, for the most part, younger and darker than immigrants from the past. While the federal government sets overall immigration policy, state and local policy directly affects immigrants on a wide range of issues, from education to health care to political representation. The Reporter Dulce Reyes Bonilla is a Dominican-born immigrant rights activist formerly on the staff of the New York Immigration Coalition. Given that New York is the national capital of worldwide immigration, one would not be surprised if the city were chosen for a summit on immigrants. But last month, it was in neighboring Long Island where activists from all over the country gathered to discuss some serious issues.
Long Island is the place where there is a small but outspoken hate movement against immigrants.
In the last two years, there have been dozens of incidents involving Latino laborers looking for work and native-born residents of the community. The victims and accused have come face to face this month at the criminal trial. Supporters believe that the hall would have addressed community concerns about public health and safety posed by the workers standing in street corners while, at the same time, it would have protected them from bias, abuse, and exploitation. Immediately after this victory, both the National Alliance and the World Church of the Creator, two supremacist hate groups, began to flyer anti-immigrant hate rhetoric. Some of these groups are involved in monitoring hate organizing throughout the country.