Anti-immigrant groups can't be held liable for attack

By The Associated Press

09.16.02

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CENTRAL ISLIP, New York — A federal judge has dismissed a civil rights lawsuit that held seven anti-immigration organizations partly responsible for the brutal September 2000 attack on a pair of Mexican day laborers.

But workers Israel Perez and Magdaleno Estrada can still pursue civil rights claims against the two men convicted of beating them, U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert ruled on Sept. 13.

In her decision, Seybert said the seven groups did not violate the two immigrants' civil rights by making anti-immigrant statements. A lawyer for one of the groups, the Farmingville-based Sachem Quality of Life, praised the ruling.

"Obviously, we're very happy that the First Amendment principles that we advocated during the case have been vindicated," said attorney Michael E. Rosman.

Perez and Estrada were beaten and stabbed by Christopher Slavin and Ryan Wagner in September 2000. The pair had posed as contractors looking for day laborers.

Both attackers were convicted of attempted murder, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Newsday reported in yesterday's editions that the attorney for Perez and Estrada, Frederick K. Brewington, said he was disappointed with the ruling. "We will be watching these organizations vigilantly with regard to their involvement in any other activity here on Long Island," he was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The newspaper also reported that the lawsuit claimed that the philosophy of white supremacist organizations — including the West Virginia-based National Alliance and American Patrol in Sherman Oaks, Calif. — urged racist violence against Latino immigrants and other racial minorities. Newsday reported that Brewington said the group's urgings prompted the attacks.

"The lawsuit was a very dangerous attempt to start imposing liability and punishment on groups because of their political and religious views," Glenn Greenwald, a Manhattan attorney representing the National Alliance and other groups, was quoted by Newsweek as saying. "If you can be liable for the actions of other people who hear your views, then you would be afraid to ever express any views that were ever unconventional."