http://www.immigrationwatchdog.com/?p=1753

Courier Postline

The organizer of a prayer rally expected to bring hundreds, if not thousands, of people to town hall today and says that if the township persists with its Illegal Immigration Relief Act, his group will fight back with more than rallies or lawsuits.

“For every immigrant who feels afraid and leaves Riverside, we are going to find an immigrant to volunteer to come live in Riverside,” the Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, said Friday.

“They will be staying at the homes of Brazilians.”

And they and other Latinos will be working to obtain mortgages and purchase homes, Rivera said, with the help of at least three banks that his organization is speaking with.

“Instead of tenants, there will be owners,” he said, noting that citizenship is not required to purchase property in the U.S.

“Riverside is going to be ours,” he said.

Rivera’s remarks, today’s rally and a lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Newark challenging the constitutionality of the ordinance were the result of the township committee enacting last month a measure that seeks to punish landlords who rent to or employers who hire illegal immigrants.

Township officials and residents who support the ordinance insist that it is aimed at illegality, not immigrants per se.

“Yes, we are all immigrants, says Rose Rendfrey, 79, a resident since 1948. “But our grandparents came here the right way.”

Mayor Charles Hilton estimates the number of illegal immigrants in his town, many if not most of them from Brazil, at anywhere from 1,500 to 3,500.

How people who aren’t supposed to be here can protest is beyond her, Rendfrey said.

“They’re here illegally,” she said. “They don’t have the right to say what they want or don’t want.”

But opponents of the ordinance, such as Rivera, contend that its supporters are disingenuous in saying their goal is dedication to the law.

“They disguise it as a solution to the immigration problem,” the Methodist minister said, “but what they are really expressing is a racist and discriminatory attitude against Latinos.”

Gary Christopher, the chairman of the local planning board, disagrees.

Respect for the law is a key part of what makes this country great, he said in an interview shortly after the ordinance was passed. He said he believes it’s time that message was reinforced.

Opinions in the township vary as to what effect the ordinance has had already. Most people, particularly businessmen, believe it has driven a good number of people away, out of fear of either prosecution, or persecution.

Christopher sees nothing wrong with “making it uncomfortable to be illegal.”



This sure sounds like a threat to me...