 A noted advocate for immigrants in Suffolk and Nassau Counties in Long Island, New York, Reverend Allan B. Ramirez, is the Pastor of the Brookville Reformed Church. He is the third longest tenured pastor—26 years— in the 260-year history of this historic Dutch Church. Ramirez is a complex jumble of seeming contradictions. He is a Latino pastor serving an Anglo congregation; born of a poor family in Ecuador, he now lives comfortably as a pastor in suburban Long Island; he inspires devotion from his congregation and Latinos in the community but also has staunch enemies on many fronts. He also supported John McCain for president because he felt the Democratic Party had taken the Latino vote for granted.
Ramirez has been involved with the Latino community in Long Island for almost the entire duration of his tenure at the Brookville Church. He respects the fact that the church has allowed him the time and freedom to do so. Throughout his career he has been involved in a number of high profile cases involving Latino immigrants. His work is wide-ranging. As he puts it, he goes to “street corners to speak with day laborers and to any neighborhoods or situations where Latinos are to respond to their particular concerns.”
In recent years, he fought for the rights of Mexicans in Farmingville after the beatings of day laborers, a firebombing of a Mexican home, and a hit and run killing of another day laborer. All were seen as hate crimes and all came in the midst of well-publicized efforts by local politicians to curtail housing and work options for illegal immigrants. Among other efforts, Ramirez fought against offensive radio parodies about Latino immigration and responded to the freezing deaths of two homeless men in Glen Cove by marching to the steps of City Hall with two coffins representing each of the men. This spawned a heated feud with the Mayor of that town over the need to build a homeless shelter. In all these situations, he has been attacked as being an outsider and as oversimplifying the issues. He is not apologetic and stands by his strong opinions.
On November 8, 38-year-old Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant, was killed by seven high school students in what the youths called “beaner jumping.” Many, like Rev. Ramirez, are saying that a local debate about illegal immigration, led by County Executive Steve Levy, of Patchogue, NY, is in part, to blame for creating a climate of hate that lead to this brutal murder. Ramirez says it is not the first such incident, and hate crimes are occurring on a regular basis despite the police statistics to the contrary. [For more on this story, please go to Marcelo Luceroʼs Murder: A Frontline Mayor and Others Weigh In, ]
What are some of the challenges of facing Latinos in Long Island?
The biggest challenge is to give them a sense of assurance that they are going to be safe. For so long politicians have demonized these people and made them feel that they are no better than animals. When they find a house overcrowded with animals they usually find some shelter for them. But when they find an overcrowded house with immigrants they just throw them out in the street. And they feel proud of it. They are saying that they believe the animals are better then we are.
[Immigrants] are living in fear, wondering whether they are going to be paid, if their jobs will still be there; they are concerned about their health because they have no benefits; they are worried for their safety, if there will be attacks on the street, they worry they cannot complain if they don’t receive basic services like heat. They have concerns about transportation to their jobs, people don’t want to see them standing out on the street, as they often do, waiting to be picked up by work trucks. Their entire lives are at risk because they cannot argue for their basic rights. But also in the halls of government, they are seen as the cause of all society’s ills.
How did you come to be involved in the case of Marcelo Lucero?
I was called and made aware of the situation. I had worked with [Marcelo Lucero’s] brother, initially. I sat with him at the funeral home, arranged for the casket to be sent to his country, I sat with him to face and meet the press, drove with him to the district attorney’s office. I was asked to eulogize his brother. Hopefully I provided some comfort.
Do you feel that hate crimes have been occurring regularly? Has there been a change over the last 5 years?
There has always been some degree of harassment in Suffolk County but it has only gotten worse as our County Executive, the head of government, has been talking about this community as if they were less than human. That creates tension and a situation in which they are living in an environment of fear.
What do you feel are the contributing factors?
The way Latino immigrants are being blamed for everything, a fall in housing prices, cuts in school spending. That’s what I’m talking about—all the ills of society are blamed on others. There are many towns losing programs in their schools and there are no immigrants. They always want to scapegoat someone for their problems.
What is the impact of local and national debates surrounding illegal immigration?
Local debates are really unworkable. After all the proposals and laws, after Levy has attempted to deputize the local police department, bring in immigration authorities, penalize contractors who hired undocumented workers, outlaw loitering by day workers who wait by the side of the road for trucks to pick them up, we still have the same problems. Nothing has changed. This should tell you that it doesn’t work. These are federal issues and there are federal laws that deal with them.
What does work is to create an atmosphere to address local issues at the local level. They have complained so much about men waiting to find work on the street; they should have hiring sites where they can go. That would answer their complaint and those workers would not have to suffer men driving by with Confederate flags harassing them. They are not addressing the fact that houses are overcrowded. Men are still on the street. None of what they have done addresses the real problems. They need to find ways to incorporate people into the community—to make everyone feel part of the community. The commanding officer of 5th precinct was hired to work with the Latino community. He happens to be Latino but he doesn’t speak Spanish. That’s just a Band Aid measure—window dressing. These things won’t work.
If there were one thing you could change immediately, to improve the lives of Latinos in your community, what would it be?
I think you have to have new leadership in county government. We need a new County Executive. As long as he is there, we will never be able to heal. Until he acknowledges his role, the current situation will not change. He wants to dictate the terms by which we resolve this issue. It’s impossible for him to do that, because he has no moral authority. He has to recognize his own contribution to this crisis.
Just a few days after he apologized for his remarks about Marcelo Lucero’s killing only being a one-day story, he actually compared what had happened to him [during the past week] to a colonoscopy. That gives you an insight into what he thinks of this community. To joke about it in such crass terms tells you a lot about him. He, along with those seven men, has blood on his hands.
Past Close Up Articles
Dr. Agapito López, M.D.
Bill Habern, defense attorney
Anya Cordell, activist
Rais Bhuiyan, survivor
Allison Moore, Volunteer
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