NYCLU Demands Action in Suffolk County After Brutal Murder of Ecuadorian Immigrant

Responding to the brutal murder of an Ecuadorian immigrant in Patchogue, the New York Civil Liberties Union has called on Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy to address the anti-immigrant culture that pervades the county and take several concrete steps to protect the safety and wellbeing of this population.

Seven Patchogue-Medford High School students have been charged in the death of Marcelo Lucero, an immigrant who was stabbed to death on Nov. 8 in an incident the police are calling a hate crime. According to news reports, the teenagers were out for the specific purpose “beating up some Mexicans.”

In a letter, NYCLU Suffolk County Chapter Director Andrea Callan asked Levy to take numerous steps to begin healing the divisiveness that has led to racial tension between long-term Suffolk residents and the county’s recent Latino immigrants. The NYCLU asked that Levy take the following steps:

• Organize a community forum in each of the county’s 10 towns, focusing on the importance of diversity and racial equality to the community.
• Conduct a survey in each of the county’s school districts to determine which schools require training on issues of diversity, and implement such training in those districts.
• Conduct an ad-campaign promoting diversity and racial equality that highlights the economic and cultural contributions of immigrants to our communities.
• Create a liaison between the Latino community and the Suffolk County Police Department responsible for responding to Latino victims of abuse and discrimination.

“Discrimination and intolerance have guided too many county policies that have sought to cast our immigrant neighbors into the shadows,” Callan said. “These unfair and, in some cases, unconstitutional policies have triggered seething hatred against the immigrant community, which manifested itself in the heinous murder of Mr. Lucero.”

The Lucero murder is not the first hate crime in Suffolk County directed at a member of the immigrant community. In the recent past, Latino day laborers have been abducted and beaten in Farmingville. A home owned by immigrants in Farmingville was torched.

“There is a correlation between the way politicians advocate for the treatment of immigrants and the way in which immigrants are then treated in their communities,” Callan said. “It’s past time to stand up and say no to the culture of bigotry that allows these crimes to occur. It is the responsibility of our elected officials to help ensure that all county residents are treated fairly and humanely, regardless of skin color or national origin, to celebrate our similarities and not dwell in our differences.”