Standing while Latino is a crime in the Town of Oyster Bay, Long Island.

But hopefully it won’t be for much longer.

This week, NYCLU, along with ACLU and LatinoJustice PRLDEF, took the town to federal court to challenge a town ordinance that prohibits people from seeking employment on streets, sidewalks and other public spaces. Just two days later, a judge issued an extraordinary order barring the town from enforcing the law because of its First Amendment implications. It’s a big win, but the battle isn’t over yet and we’ll be back in court next week ensuring that Oyster Bay can never again enforce this discriminatory law.

The ordinance, which the Town Board passed last year under the guise of "public safety," is really intended to deprive Latino day laborers of their livelihoods. It seeks to drive immigrants from the community.

Our lawsuit maintains that the ordinance violates the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It was filed on behalf of Centro de la Comunidad Hispana de Locust Valley and the Workplace Project, local nonprofit membership organizations that support day laborers and their families.

For nearly two decades, day laborers have gathered in Oyster Bay, particularly the hamlet of Locust Valley and the Village of Farmingdale, to find work. They perform mostly short-term manual labor and construction. For many, it is their sole source of income.

The ordinance imposes a $250 fine on anyone caught soliciting work on a public sidewalk. It also penalizes motorists who stop to hire day laborers. And for the past several months, law enforcement officials have been parked near an intersection that is a popular place for day laborers seeking work. The town has also been sending letters to contractors, warning them of the potential fine. It’s exacting a devastating toll on day laborers and their families.

Luz Torres of the Centro de la Comunidad Hispana de Locust Valley put it this way: “Oyster Bay’s ordinance is hurting families and it’s hurting children. These people have to work so that they can feed, clothe and house their children, and they have the right to talk to anyone they want.”

The ordinance violates the free speech rights of citizens and immigrants alike. It criminalizes a wide variety of constitutionally protected speech that presents no threat to traffic safety. All sorts of activity — high school kids soliciting cars for a car wash fundraiser or a neighbor asking a teenager to babysit — are subject to the ordinance's criminal penalties.

Our lawsuit requests an immediate freeze on enforcement of the law so that day laborers can find work again. It also asks the court to declare the law unconstitutional.

Sadly, Oyster Bay’s ordinance is just another troubling example of the anti-immigrant sentiment that has swept across Long Island and much of the country in recent years. Like Arizona’s recently passed anti-immigrant law SB 1070 and closer to home, the upstate town of Jackson’s English only ordinance, Oyster Bay is signing itself up to the be the next poster child for violating the constitution. Until Congress passes comprehensive immigration reform that respects everyone’s rights and dignity more and more states and localities will continue to try to take fixing our broken immigration system into their own hands.