Monday, January 18, 2010

Why are we spending money on this?

From the Times Ledger:

The city Department of Youth and Community Development has identified the recipients of three $200,000 stimulus grants designed to help Queens’ immigrant day laborers.

The department announced last week that the Make the Road New York organization will receive two of the grants and the MinKwon Center will receive one, which they must use to help first-generation immigrants hone their employment skills, become familiar with their rights and more.

Day laborers are some of the city’s lowest-paid, most neglected workers, and they often have little knowledge of their rights or the means to improve their employment situations.

“We definitely think the neighborhoods, Jackson Heights and Woodside, Queens, are a crisis center in the economic collapse,” said Saduf Syal, project coordinator for Make the Road New York’s community workforce project. “Day laborers congregate in these areas, often with no knowledge of their rights, the proper wages or safety precautions. So, yes, the need is definitely there.”

Make the Road New York will facilitate programs to offer services to these under-served workers in Jackson Heights and Woodside, while the MinKwon Center will focus its efforts on helping workers in the Flushing area.

The grants are three of six being disbursed throughout the city through the economic stimulus package — two are also being distributed to groups in Brooklyn and one will be awarded in Staten Island.

The MinKwon Center is a rare organization in that its work targeted low-wage immigrant workers most often ends up benefiting Asian Americans, unlike Make the Road’s, which often reaches mainly Hispanic populations.


Are we checking for green cards before spending tax money on this?

10 comments:

Klink Cannoli said...

Oh, payback for voter constituents. How nice.

What a diseased Party it's become. A Party of every nation but it's own.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it illegal to hire illegal aliens?

So I always wondered why there aren't any undercover investigations of people hiring illegals.

For example a hispanic american citizen walks into a restaurant and attempts and succeeds to get a job for $5 an hour off the books and he has a hidden camera?

Anonymous said...

because they live here too. Not very christian of you guys to exclude them.

and Klink... who are our own people? Are you of native blood? doubt it, b/c we immigrants nearly killed them all.

Queens Crapper said...

Who said we were Christian? Let's remember, tax money must be spent on non-secular purposes. I am a native American, as I would guess are most people commenting here. And the politically correct term of "native Americans" doesn't really hold water as they were immigrants, too. I love when people bring that up. It's such a dumb and simplistic argument. The first allegiance our government should have is to its taxpayers, not to its invaders.

Klink Cannoli said...

Anon wrote:
"...who are our own people?"
===============================

Answer: Citizens embodying the American traditions and respect for its laws.

I'm first-generation and would qualify for those services. There's the irony. The city Department of Youth and Community Development programs are a farse. It's another governmental body perpetuating bogus policies and ideologies to illegal aliens, their constituents.


And please have the courage to give yourself, at the very least, some moniker if you care to continue a conversation with me.

Anony 2 said...

On the bright side, if the day laborers would only work for prevailing wage, then no one will hire them. Americans will get these jobs and the day laborers will go home.

Don't I have nice dreams :) ?

Lino said...

Anon said...

"Isn't it illegal to hire illegal aliens?"

-Yes it is. There are sanctions too.

"So I always wondered why there aren't any undercover investigations of people hiring illegals."

"For example a hispanic american citizen walks into a restaurant and attempts and succeeds to get a job for $5 an hour off the books and he has a hidden camera?"

That is not how this sort of thing goes down.

The prospective employee is most often a friend or relative of someone already employed there.

Second, no one says "off the books" -they simply say "I'll pay you cash..you take care of the taxes" or similar. They then ask for some sort of ID and usually accept what is offered. This is how most smaller operations work.

It will not change even if all the immigrants were gone tomorrow.

In most of our restaurants -all- employees are paid via a payroll accounting co. Managers account the register receipts, that's all. NO store staff pays anyone directly. The reasons for this should be obvious in a cash business.

The usual opinion by me applies: Don't hire them and they'll go away.

Anonymous said...

Then NYC is aiding and abetting illegal immigration?
to me, this means that the City is helping the invaders make life more difficult for it's citizens and constituents.

It's disgusting how we have to compete with uneducated South Americans, Mexicans and Chinese youngsters to find paying work.

If the problem is so bad in Jackson Heights and Woodside, why don't they go back to their countries of origin?

What is so terrible about suggesting that? If these illegal aliens are so proud of where they ran away from, why can't they go home and stop destroying our lives?

My experience of South Americans is that they have a huge network in underground, under the radar employment. They have ads up on the telephone poles and trees in all the neighborhoods where the illegals live, like Corona, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights for work in factories. Vans come and pick up a group taking them to NJ and Long Island.

In Sunnyside and Woodside, Irish immigrants with business and stores will only hire illegal Mexicans, not Americans. Their loyalty is to the illegals not this country. They look down on Americans as stupid, the Irish immigrants consider themselves so much smarter than the native Irish Americans.

Eric Gioia made a big deal out of the Hispanic dance halls cropping up in Jackson Heights. He wasted a lot of taxpayer money and resources on dealing with this instead of having them all deported.

Why wasn't he working on jobs programs instead for unemployed NY'ers? I

Anonymous said...

Tax dollars should be spent on citizens. These illegals are just that -- criminals. If any stimulus money is to be used, use it to deport them. Why are our politicians coddling these criminals and making them comfortable here? They DON'T belong here. Use the money for things that citizens need, like a new electrical infrastructure for all the overdevelopment our politicians allow.

Georges said...

“Day laborers congregate in these areas, often with no knowledge of their rights, the proper wages or safety precautions. So, yes, the need is definitely there.”

They can congregate on a jet winging them back to Mexico. What gall to give away taxpaper money to non-resident aliens!!