The Schoharie County Sheriff’s Office said a tip has led to the arrest of 31 illegal immigrants. According to police, they picked up the illegal aliens at Oorah’s Catskill Retreat in the town of Gilboa, where they were prepping a summer camp.
Oorah purchased the retreat last year and is hosting BoysZone and GirlsZone camps this year.
Schoharie County Sheriff John Bates Jr. said his deputies were tipped off earlier this summer that illegal aliens might be doing construction at the retreat. “Apparently, they were working for various contractors and were being put up at both the retreat and the Belvedere Inn (in Stamford),” Bates said.
After a three-week investigation the workers were rounded up without incident by Schoharie deputies, ICE agents, Delaware deputies and state police.
Rabbi Eliyohu Mintz, a director of Oorah Inc., said he did not know any of the workers might have been illegal immigrants. Between five and 10 contracting firms are working at the camp, mostly doing facade work to buildings, he said. “They have very little to do with us,” Mintz, of Lakewood, N.J., said of the contractors. “Most of them are from upstate.”
(Sources: Oneonta Daily Star & Capital News 9)
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26 Responses
Always assume a mexican working in a camp is illegal unless proven otherwise!
This is rediculous. Are they going to arrest ALL illegal immigrants now. They make it sound like this was the find of the century. ILLEGAL IMMAGRANTS! Oh MY!!
Pinny’s Angels: Thanks for your words of wisdom! Your bigotry and gratuitous sense of superiority have no place on YeshivaWorld on any other public forum represented by Bnai Torah. Keep your narrow-minded prejudice to yourself, please!
YW Editor: Though I can appreciate your desire to allow and tolerate a very broad spectrum of views on your site, there is no room for such bias, hatred and intolerance! It is not in any way reflective of the true Torah values to which I proudly subscribe.
Takeh, Dina D’Malchus Dina is a Torah value. The law of the land must be upheld. sammygol is correct. They are called “illegals” fir a reason. They brok the law. They are in this country “illegally.” The remedy is to deport them.
Dina D’Malchsa Dina.
takeh:i don’t know pinny’s angels, but this doesn’t sound like bigotry. it’s the law of “roiv”.most of the mexicans doing construction work are illegal, at least here in n.y.
dina d’malchsa dina:question, did you ever cross the street against a red light? how about crossing in the middle of the street?how about doing over 25 mph? which the last time i looked was the speed limit in the city.how about buckling up your seat belt every time you get into the car?
I believe the nieghbors of this camp are german and austrian anti semites
WSX, and TZEE KLUG:
I might agree with your opinions as they relate to the issue of immigration-amnesty, deportation, Democrats, Republicans, etc. I also feel strongly about the importance of a strong policy that would solve the issue of the 12,000,000 “illegals” in this country.
However, Dina D’Malchsa Dina does not in any way call for a demeaning, degrading way of referring to any group of people if it is based solely on ethnicity or race. There is definitely a more respectful way of talking and the above is just not it! The Tannaim and Amoraim from whom we learn the concept of Dina D’Malchsa Dina did not refer to their respective country-mates in any manner similar to that which I am criticizing.
Let’s be respectful!
Do you have a cleaning lady in your house? Is she legally employed by you?
It’s easy to judge others for Dina D’Malchsa Dina, and find a million Heteirim for your own convenience.
.
WSX: What reasonable individual, company, or organization checks the IDs of his contractors’ workers?
All: Please read the story, this has nothing to do with the camp or Oorah. The workers were employed by contractors doing work for the camp. Does anyone require their contractors, plumbers, painters or similar to provide proof that their employees are legal.
Takeh-
What’s your problem? He’s right. Always ASSUME that mexican workers are illegal. I have 5 working for me now. They’re all illegal. What’s bigotrous about that?
sometimes a blind attachment to political correctness can breed more vitriol than bigotry.
in pinnys angels post, one could PERHAPS tangentially infer some bigotry, especially if that’s what one wanted to find.
but “gratuitous sense of superiority”
“intolerance”
“hatred”!!!
sometimes to see such attributes wherever one looks reflects more on the beholder.
To Reb TZEE KLUG
I have crossed in a red light. I have crossed in teh middle of a street.I have driven over the speed limit (although I have NEVER been in a car w/o a seatbelt). And if a cop were to evr ticket me for my transgressions I would humbly accept the ticket.
Illegal immigrants are should be kicked out, plain and simple. Don’t do the crme if you can’t do the time. If tehy have a problem they shold have stayed in Mexico. If you have a problem then move to Canada.
“I believe the nieghbors of this camp are german and austrian anti semites”
gee, that sure is great news for oorah… nothing like having good neighbors.
Thank the lord for the Illegals, your home would cost twice as much if not for the illegals and you would starve to death because there would be no one to do the farm work we so desperately need for survival. This country is very smart to allow them here and to keep them illegal. We have workers to do what Americans won’t, and they can’t complain about thier wages because they are illegal!!!! REPUBLICAN FOR PRESIDENT IN ’08
Takeh, what is bigoted about Pinnys Angels comments? When contractors, supermarkets,camps,and other industries hire illegal workers ,they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.The fact remains that these type of industries are notorious for illegal employment and for you to claim that is bigoted only emboldens them to continue this illegal conduct.
stand up for what is right and quit playing the race card.
Tzee Klug, your comment is not really worthy of reply but I will respond anyhow. When one speeds or does not fasten ones seatbelt,it is against the law but only that individual will pay.But when they hire illegal workers, the economy loses, the tax payer loses and its fraud. Get it?
7. What’s your point? If any of the things you list are against the law (not all are in all states), then they are also Hallachically forbidden because of Dinah D’Malchusa Dinah.
oh please zionflag. i guess you only employ unions right?
IMHO SAID…
I have crossed in a red light. I have crossed in the middle of a street.I have driven over the speed limit (although I have NEVER been in a car w/o a seatbelt). And if a cop were to ever ticket me for my transgressions I would humbly accept the ticket.
Illegal immigrants should be kicked out, plain and simple. Don’t do the crme if you can’t do the time. If they have a problem they should have stayed in Mexico. If you have a problem then move to Canada.
Comment by IMHO — July 11, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
RESPONSE TO IMHO– The same way you won’t have a problem if you get a ticket for going through a red light. The illegals won’t have a problem with getting deported if they get caught. They just hope they don’t get deported just like you hope you won’t get a ticket for running a red light. I don’t think that you hold that you should get a ticket every time you run a red light if that would not be true then every time you do run a light you would go straight to the police station and tell them to give you a ticket. PLEASE RESPOND I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU.
Regarding the arrest of 31 illegal immigrants who were working for contractors at Oorah’s summer camp in Gilboa, NY — Anyone reading your article would imagine people from Oorah driving around the Catskills, picking up illegals from the street corners to save themselves a few dollars. It so happens that, as a volunteer involved with the Oorah, I know first-hand that this is a very misleading image.
Just as a little background, people should know that Oorah bought what used to be Golden Acres as a place for its camps, GirlZone and BoyZone. These camps are run totally as tzedakah. The counselors are all volunteers. The kids pay very little or nothing at all. Many of them are from poor Russian or Israeli families. Lots of them have divorced parents and most of the kids would be in public school day camps if it weren’t for Oorah. This is not a money-making business.
Since the minute Oorah opened the camp, way up high in the Catskills, the locals have been furious. They haven’t been ashamed to let Oorah and the officials of the town know that they do not want this camp in their town. To make sure that Oorah got their point, they reported the camp to every agency they could find. DEP, DEC and OSHA have all conducted inspections in response to complaints. The local sheriff’s office has had officers stationed round the clock outside the camp, just waiting to ticket some driver from the camp.
With all these inspections, Oorah ended up dealing with a long list of violations – hundreds of them, and Oorah took care of them all. They spent weeks before camp opened making repairs, and to do that, they hired 20 licensed, legitimate contractors, mostly from the Gilboa area. The workers were working on the wiring, plumbing, tiling who knows what else, all day and into the night. So of course, the contractors were happy to put up their workers in the empty camp. Once the campers showed up for the first trip, the workers had to go elsewhere.
So with all the building and health regulations met, what was left for the residents to do? Call immigration, of course. But their complaint was really not against Oorah, it was against their own local contractors who hired the workers. Oorah didn’t have any obligation to check out the worker’s papers, and according to what one person told me, the men that were arrested wouldn’t have even aroused unusual suspicion. They actually spoke a decent English and some of them had drivers’ licenses.
Last night there was a meeting with the Town Committee. Some residents showed up to have their say, and if you could have heard their complaints, you’d have no doubt that the bottom line here is that they would like Oorah to pack up and go home. They don’t like the ball-field lights (which haven’t even been turned on); they don’t like the speaker system (which the former owners used for the past 20 years); they feel Oorah didn’t introduce themselves properly (after they sent out a friendly letter to every resident telling them all about the camp and its purpose of helping underprivileged Jewish children) and so forth.
And just as a side-point to people who have quoted the rule of Dina D’Malchsa Dina — Rav Moshe said that the rule applies to the spirit of the law. In a state where towns set up muster zones specifically for hiring illegal immigrants, you can’t really say that hiring them is against the spirit of the law.
I know that Oorah has spent thousands of dollars to repair every violation, no matter how big or small. It’s not looking to do things in an underhanded, slipshod way. It’s looking to do good, and it is doing good.
Thank you.
Tzee Klug, your comment is not really worthy of reply but I will respond anyhow. When one speeds or does not fasten ones seatbelt,it is against the law but only that individual will pay.But when they hire illegal workers, the economy loses, the tax payer loses and its fraud. Get it?
Only that person will pay? What about the person he hits and possibly kills because of his speeding? What about his family when he gets thrown from the window R’L because he was not wearing a seatbelt?
Takah Post 9 “…Dina D’Malchsa Dina did not refer to their respective country-mates in any manner…”
Respective Country Mates??? and if a squatter moves into your garage is he your house mate?
And the border is still wide open and 10 times that many people come in every day. The only difference is, these people actually had jobs and were contributing to the local economy while trying to make an honest living. I don’t know if I can say that about the 300 people that crossed the border illegally last night.
mdlevine: I didn’t intend on granting them citizenship status or the right to stay. You are right in comparing them to squatters. I merely suggested a more respectful way in addressing them. I also brought forth the novel concept that “assuming a mexican working in a camp is illegal unless proven otherwise” is bigoted and racist! No, I am not defending their right to stay nor do I advocate amnesty or a weakening of any immigration criteria.
Takeh: re: Pinny’s Angels remark: “Always assume a Mexican working in a camp is illegal unless proven otherwise!”
And your comment that it is “bigoted and racist”
Please note: Definition of Bigoted = “intolerant toward others”
Definition of racist = “a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others”
Where do you see that stating a chazaka that “a Mexican working in a camp is illegal” is either ‘intolerant’ of them or a prejudiced ‘belief that one race is superior to others'(Mexicans)????
And your professing that it is a “demeaning, degrading way of referring to any group of people if it is based solely on ethnicity or race.” Where may I ask was he referring to them based solely on ethnicity or race? They are Mexicans! He didn’t say Mexican are stupid or dirty or whatever. He said that most Mexicans (in this country) doing day labor work are by chazaka to be assumed “illegal”! That’s ALL he said!
Lets be a little Dan Lekaff Zechus here?
Have a meaningful Bein Hamtzorim!