Mixed Reaction to Suffolk Worker-Documentation Law

By Erik German and Reid J. Epstein, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

May 16–For John Willis, who runs an East Patchogue contracting business excavating and installing cesspools, Suffolk’s new law requiring him to report the immigration status of his employees is a redundant hassle.

“I think it’ll be a pain,” Willis said. He said he requires his employees to have a valid driver’s license, a measure he believes filters out workers living in the country illegally. “I’m a small company. I hate paperwork.”

But Louis Felice, an excavating contractor from Patchogue, said he didn’t expect the new requirements to be a problem. “We only hire family,” he said.

Suffolk contractors affected by a new county law requiring them to report the immigration status of their employees had mixed reactions to the measure yesterday, from those who called the extra paperwork a burden to those who welcomed the measure warmly for competitive reasons.

Felice said his company, L&L Felice Inc., employs no undocumented workers. But he said he knows of landscapers and builders that do rely on such workers, and Felice said he expects those companies to feel pinched by the new rules.

“The ones that do hire them aren’t going to be able to get a guy that’s born in this country to do the work,” he said. “They’re probably going to have to charge higher prices.”

David Leach, vice president of Leach Landscaping in Sayville, agreed. “Putting employees on the books is going to raise prices,” he said. “It’s expensive to be legit.”

But Leach and others said they welcomed changes he said will force smaller operators to play by the rules law-abiding businesses already follow.

“We’re not able to compete with the guys that are hiring these guys right off the street,” said John Morgenthaler, general manager of Above All Fence, a fence installation company in East Islip.

While the new law is aimed primarily at home improvement contractors, it will affect more than 17,000 licensees in 19 fields.

Leonard Tarzia, who owns the Regency Forest Pet Memorial Park in Middle Island, said he had no idea pet cemeteries were covered by the worker status provision. But he said it wouldn’t be a problem for him and his 10 employees.

“As far as our staff goes, everybody who works here is of American descent,” he said. “We’re 100 percent legal.”

Tarzia said it would unnecessarily take time out of his day to collect documentation to prove that statement to county officials, but he would do it.

The bill likely won’t be a problem for small companies, said Kathleen Zguris, the manager of the Family Melody Center, which employs 12 people at its Patchogue store.

“We have a payroll company and we supply them with various forms of identification,” Zguris said. “It wouldn’t be a problem.”

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