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[T] People v. Ventura5/6/2004
legally or not. The blight that illegal occupancy causes within a community will not be eliminated by the execution of search warrants unless there is other legal housing available.
Communities throughout the nation are grappling with solutions to the problem of illegal housing. The problem is in part explained by the workers who came to this land of opportunity where our streets were never paved with gold but where some immigrants believed that they are. This country represents a far better opportunity for most then their homelands did. Our politics, treaties and international relations with foreign countries mean nothing to a hard working laborer who may at the end of a day receive a hundred dollars in cash for his or her work. Similarly the issues presented by code enforcement mean nothing to the laborer whose simple demands consist of the opportunity to work and a place to sleep.
"Ernesto from Mexico and Luis from El Salvador stood with about two dozen day workers in an empty lot in Southampton Village, shivering in the cold of a recent early morning. As they waited, men drove by, some in cars, some in small trucks, and parked in the 7-Eleven across the street. Emerging from the convenience store with their breakfast coffee and pastries, they would cross the street to the day workers waiting for the jobs doing things like landscaping, masonry or carpentry.
"None of the day workers had food or drink; many of the men would not have access to a bathroom before nightfall. But they said that most days they get work, and with a prevailing wage of $12 an hour, tax free, they keep coming back. 'In a day here, I earn what I earned in Mexico in a month,' Ernesto said through a translator.
"During the summer, when work abounds and homeowners plead with contractors to return their phone calls, the number of men waiting at this stop reaches upwards of 300." See Warren Strugatch, Plan For Hiring Hall Snarled In Immigrant Issues, The New York Times, Long Island Section, Sunday, April 11, 2004 at 6.
To what extent should we interfere with the uneasy symbiotic relationship that exists between the migrant day laborers and our communities? Do we force the issue of the need for affordable housing by effectively evicting tenants; compelling them to relocate either on their own or with the help of social service agencies, both private and public? Since most of the migrant day laborers are not paying taxes on their income, how much should our taxpayers be compelled to pay for code enforcement and the consequences of it? On the flip side of that question is one that is even more vexing, namely, why should taxpayers and municipalities be compelled to pay for the added costs of municipal services created by untaxed residential uses.
Under present circumstances the Village may argue a per se violation of their laws when faced with illegal occupancies. But, by the same token those who are forced to occupy these dwellings may very well have a "necessity defense" to such charges meaning that they are compelled to live where they do. As a society, we avail ourselves of their cheap labor for masonry, housekeeping, landscaping and other menial jobs; they are often paid cash; have no worker's compensation insurance; do not pay taxes and live in illegal housing. What is the alternative? They have work but no place to live. Slumlords have taken advantage of the housing market's demands by providing illegal housing to make up for the shortage of affordable housing. Elected officials at State, County and Town levels are destroying suburbia by ignoring this important housing issue.
A search warrant by itself cannot stop the influx of illegal immigrants or the sp
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