NEW YORK - A law passed Tuesday by the Suffolk County Legislature is discriminatory, unfair and unpatriotic, according to Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The new law requires that all 17,000 licensed contractors in the county prove their employees’ working status. The measure is the first of its kind in the state and follows a highly controversial 2006 law that requires contractors doing business with the county to confirm the legal status of their employees.

“The U.S. Constitution makes immigration a federal responsibility for good reasons. Localized attempts to control immigration create a hodgepodge of differing standards across the country and worse, they fuel discrimination,” Lieberman said.

“This legislation is an invitation for employers to discriminate against people entitled to work but who speak Spanish or otherwise look or sound ‘foreign.’ The Legislature’s political pandering will only make it difficult for honest, hardworking people to work and feed their families. That’s not the way America works. We make laws that prohibit discrimination. We don’t create laws that require people to discriminate.”

She said asking “Suffolk’s business owners to act as immigration agents is an unfair burden. Rather than punishing employers and putting them in the impossible position of complying with a discriminatory law, Suffolk County would do better to address its concerns by supporting rational policies that both respect the rule of law and the American value of fairness.”