Hampton Bays woman founds new pro-immigration organization

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Sylvia Baruch at the North Fork Spanish Apostolate. VERA CHINESE

Sylvia Baruch has witnessed firsthand the struggles of immigrants living on Long Island while volunteering with the North Fork Spanish Apostolate, a Riverhead group that serves Latino families in need of assistance.

Over the past seven years, the Hampton Bays resident has personally helped several Mexican families, in some instances by driving their children to doctor appointments and, in others, by tutoring their children who are struggling in school, all in the hopes of helping them achieve a better life.

Ms. Baruch has experienced the joy of helping a 30-year-old Latino man learn to read English for the first time. On the flip side, she has also suffered the heartbreak that comes when families she has helped in the past are forced to return to their home countries because their primary bread winner was deported.

“I’ve been so impressed with their efforts and care for one another,” said Ms. Baruch of the immigrants she has helped. And though she openly admits that many of those she assists are undocumented, Ms. Baruch said their legal status simply does not matter to her.

“You give people a label, so you don’t have to deal with them as human beings,” said Ms. Baruch whose grandparents were Sephardic Jews who immigrated from what is now Macedonia in the early 1900s.

After observing the protesters who congregate near the 7-Eleven on County Road 39 in Southampton Village, many of whom think that all illegal immigrants should be rounded up and deported, Ms. Baruch said she was prompted to form a pro-immigrants’ rights group called Neighbors in Support of Immigrants. “The anti-immigrant groups were so organized,” she added, justifying one of her reasons for launching the group.

In January, Ms. Baruch said she reached out to about 40 people on the East End, asking them their thoughts on forming an illegal immigrants’ rights coalition. She said the response was overwhelming and Neighbors in Support of Immigrants, a group of American citizens whose main goal is to oversee to the humane treatment of immigrants living on the North and South forks, was formed.

Today, the group, which focuses on the rights of all immigrants—both legal and illegal—consists of about two dozen members who meet once a month to express their views and discuss ways to further their group’s message. “We all share a concern about the immigrants and want to see them treated well,” said Ms. Baruch who was inspired by the struggles of her grandparents upon their arrival in America.

Organizers note that coalition members are still in the process of writing their mission statement. Still, they have already submitted letters to the editor that have been published by The Press and sent additional correspondence to U.S. Representative Tim Bishop of Southampton and President Obama, urging both to introduce legislation on comprehensive immigration reform.

In a recent interview, Ms. Baruch pointed to the economic benefit the immigrants bring to the East End by providing cheaper labor for some companies. “There is a lot of misinformation about that,” she said, adding that it would cost too much money to deport every one of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants now residing in the country.

Still, not everyone on the East End shares Ms. Baruch’s opinions, nor her reasons for launching an organization whose goal, in part, is to advocate on behalf of those who have entered the country illegally.

Elaine Kahl, the co-chair of the Suffolk County Coalition for Legal Immigration/No Amnesty, said her group has a very different stance on illegal immigration. Although they support legal immigration, Ms. Kahl said her group focuses more on the negative effects associated with those who are entering the country illegally.

“We don’t support people entering here who have broken the law,” she said. “It has the entire community extremely upset.”

Ms. Kahl, who declined to say where in Southampton Town she lives, said she is urging Neighbors in Support of Immigrants to reconsider its mission, one that, she said, will ultimately harm the qualify of life for all East End residents. “Would they like these people who are begging for jobs hanging out on their front lawns?” she said.

Ms. Kahl also maintains that her group is not motivated by hate. “It’s not a race issue, it’s a legal issue,” she said.

Though she is aware of the brewing opposition, Ms. Baruch defended her reasons for helping launch the new organization. She noted that many of the people who enter the country illegally would opt to cross the border lawfully, if they could. “The immigration system is broken,” she said.

Ms. Baruch added that while group members can do little to change the opinions of those who oppose illegal immigration, she still hopes to reach the people who are on the fence about the issue. “There is a group of middle folk who haven’t really thought about it,” she said.