Published: July 21, 2007 01:49 pm      

Immigration issue hits close to home

And recent events in Schoharie and Delaware counties show it’s not only areas of the country near the border with Mexico that have had opinions and emotions run high on both sides.

Earlier this month, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, along with local and state police, arrested 31 suspected illegal immigrants said to be employed by subcontractors at a summer camp in Gilboa owned by Oorah Inc., a Jewish nonprofit educational organization.

Twenty-six of the men lived at the Belvedere Inn in Stamford, while the other five lived at the campsite. They all had stayed at the camp earlier in the summer, according to camp officials.

Eliyohu Mintz, a director of Oorah, said the organization was not aware any of the workers were in the country illegally. They came from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and the Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile, Stamford Mayor Anne Slatin said the owner of the Belvedere Hotel also most likely didn’t know the men’s legal status.

"It’s not illegal to rent rooms to a foreign traveler," she said.

There might seem to be a lot of blame to go around in this situation, but the responsibility for finding legal workers ultimately rests with the subcontractors hired by the camp.

However, we also wish the camp owners had expanded their horizons and looked for local residents to do the construction work. That could have provided some much-needed jobs and built goodwill with the community, besides avoiding any legal problems.

Goodwill apparently has been in short supply, as neighbors have been complaining about the camp’s addition of nighttime lighting, according to Gilboa town Supervisor Anthony VanGlad.

Some neighbors in Stamford said they were surprised by the raid, but others likely were not.

As the country continues to wrestle with the best way to improve our border security while treating people humanely, it’s important that Americans not rush to judgment about the people in their communities.

It’s simply unfair to assume that anyone with brown skin or a Spanish surname is in the country illegally _ or that those who are deserve to be mistreated or exploited because of it.

The best way to handle situations like this one is for residents to report any legitimate suspicions and let the authorities deal with them accordingly.

ICE spokesman Michael Gilhooly said the assistance of the local and state authorities was instrumental in cracking this case.

We want people to obey the law and come to America legally if they want to work here.

But that requires more government action to make legal immigration easier, and until that happens, companies and residents shouldn’t flout the law, or try to take it into their own hands.