Thread: Tempest over illegal immigrants roils town

Boston.com

Tempest over illegal immigrants roils town
Small group's campaign a concern in Framingham

By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff | May 19, 2005

In his spare time, Jeffrey Buck likes to visit Arizona, but not to thaw out after a long Massachusetts winter or take in the desert vistas. He patrols the border, searching for illegal immigrants.
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''If they're going to break one law to come into this country, they're more likely to break other laws," said the 32-year-old Framingham resident.

Buck is one of three men who are leading a controversial campaign against illegal immigration in Framingham, which has seen a wave of newcomers from Brazil in recent years.

With Joe Rizoli, 52, Buck has formed an organization and produces a local cable-TV show that airs their views. Rizoli's twin brother, Jim, also a member of the group, campaigned unsuccessfully for selectman last month on an anti-illegal immigration platform.

The men insist that they are not xenophobes and say they are simply calling for enforcement of the law. But their critics say they're going too far, even inciting violence.

''I know it's a small group of people," the Rev. Peter Cook, senior minister at Plymouth Church and chairman of an affordable-housing group, said at a recent meeting convened to discuss how to respond to the men. ''But a small group can do an incredible amount of damage."

Similar tensions have been brewing in some other New England communities. Beginning last month, according to news reports, police in two New Hampshire towns started using the state's criminal trespass law to cite illegal immigrants. And in Danbury, Conn., Mayor Mark Boughton is asking that State Police be deputized as immigration agents to help fight illegal immigration.

Tall and usually mild-mannered, with a blond crew cut, Buck looks like a grownup Boy Scout. He's training to be a locksmith, and he drives a RIDE van for people with disabilities.

Buck has pointed out that he is a former teacher of English as a second language who majored in Spanish at a Christian college in Missouri and spent a summer in Mexico. He also speaks some Portuguese, which he picked up when he attended a local Brazilian church for about a year.

''We're not targeting Brazilians; Brazilians are targeting Framingham," Buck said. ''We're not going to shut up."

Joe and Jim Rizoli are both unassuming and can even be affable one on one. But once you get them talking about their subject, they become animated, raise their voices, and gesture angrily.

They're identical twins, and the only way to tell them apart is that Joe is more casual, wearing his longer, slightly graying hair tied back and covered by a baseball cap. Jim is a little more businesslike, with neatly trimmed hair; he often wore a sports coat while campaigning.

Joe Rizoli works as a bus driver for the Metco program, which brings students from the city into the suburbs to attend school.e argued that illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans.


''This isn't just cleaning toilets," Joe Rizoli said. ''They're taking the big jobs."

Jim Rizoli, who, like Buck, is a Town Meeting member, runs a carpet cleaning company and said he has lost business to illegal immigrants.

Buck and Joe Rizoli formed the group, Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement, in 2003. They say it has about 30 members who participate in e-mail chats.

The organization's cable show has drawn flak for showing footage or photos of local Brazilian community activists and pointing an accusatory finger at them.

In one show, for example, footage was displayed of one activist's storefront while Jim Rizoli said, ''This is the business girl who has done this. . . . They're trying to bring illegal aliens into this country." He was referring to her support of a sister city program between Framingham and a city in Brazil.

The Rizolis also have become known for their statements during public-comment periods at selectmen's meetings. They have stated that illegal immigrants, because they enter the country unofficially, may have criminal records or diseases.

All three agreed to be interviewed at the Rizolis' home in the downtown area, the same house in which the brothers grew up. What used to be a traditional dining room for family gatherings is now a video workshop for the cable show with monitors and DVDs and stacks of videotapes. Only the chandelier hints at the room's former role.

The three men insist that they're not promoting hate.

They estimate that 10,000 to 20,000 Brazilians are in town illegally and say that has ramifications for hospitals, schools, social services, and crime.

All three deny that they are motivated by racial or ethnic prejudice.

Still, Buck said, he is no fan of diversity.

''People say, 'Celebrate diversity,' " said Buck. ''We say, 'Celebrate assimilation.' "

One local immigrant activist recently estimated that 13,000 Brazilians have moved to Framingham. No one knows how many are illegal immigrants, but the same activist estimated that as many as 70 percent of Brazilians in the state may be undocumented.

Brazilian immigrant business owners have made their mark on the town by opening restaurants and travel agencies and jewelry shops in the downtown area. And some credit them with saving the business district.

Vera Dias-Freitas, the Brazilian community activist whose shop was featured on the cable TV show, said she believes the message spread by the Rizolis and Buck has led to incidents like the recent vandalism of a car belonging to Ilma Paixao, the head of the Brazilian American Association, also a frequent target of the show.

''We are allowing a group of folks to spread hate throughout our community," said Dias-Freitas. ''And what we are going to have is violence, and it's already starting."Buck and the Rizolis denied that they had anything to do with the Paixao incident and said they do not promote violence.

Lieutenant Vincent Alfano, a spokesman for the Framingham Police, said an investigation found Paixao's car was vandalized but discovered no evidence of a hate crime.

''They attack individual women and they incite wayward members of the community to aggressive and violent behavior," said Frank Kavanagh, Paixao's ex-husband and a member of the board of directors of the Brazilian American Association

''What does it say about our town when these individuals are elected officials?" said Kavanagh. ''They are Town Meeting members. This is no joke, and they have a lot of quiet support among other Town Meeting members."

Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, a statewide immigrant activist group, said he hopes the Framingham selectmen take a strong stand against the organization.

''The tactics that opponents to immigration are using are based on fear mongering," he said. ''And what they're trying to do is identify leaders in the community as targets. These are tactics that were used against civil rights leaders, so this is nothing new. It's a very scary recycling of tactics of fear and hatred."

Jim Rizoli said he is facing possible charges for allegedly making threats to Kavanagh in an e-mail exchange. A Framingham District Court clerk magistrate will consider whether to issue charges on May 31. Rizoli denied he was in any way threatening Kavanagh; Kavanagh wouldn't comment.

The meeting earlier this month of about 40 Brazilian community activists and others who were concerned about Buck and the Rizolis included Cook, Paixao, Democratic state Representative Debby Blumer, former town moderator Jerry Desilets, MetroWest Chamber of Commerce president Ted Welte, Selectman John Stasik, and several other leaders.

Former selectman Christopher Ross agreed to cochair the new group. He said at the meeting that the group should produce its own cable show to refute what the Rizolis and Buck say.

Katie Murphy, the chairwoman of the selectmen, has called for a conference this summer to bring together local, state, and federal officials to study the impact of illegal immigration on the town. She said she's not convinced it is a problem in Framingham, except possibly for harming the immigrants themselves.

''Are they performing critical functions? Are they affecting local salaries? Are they being exploited? Are they taking a lot of police time? My impression is they are really not. I tend to think these people are probably more in danger than they are a danger."

Murphy said the Rizolis have so taken over the public comment portion of selectmen's meetings that the board is weighing whether to change the rules to limit their dominance -- for example, by not broadcasting that part of the meeting.

But Buck and the Rizolis got some support from Selectwoman Ginger Esty, who said they have some ''sincere concern and interest and information to impart," even if sometimes their message gets lost in their delivery.

Another member of the organization, Framingham resident AnnMarie DeMarini, said she gives the Rizolis credit for speaking out on a sensitive subject.

''They're very passionate and probably at times can be overzealous. . . . Maybe it turned some people off," she said. ''[But] I think they're doing a good job of getting the message out and making people take notice."

Noorani, the immigration activist, said the overarching problem is an immigration system that's too restrictive and unenforceable, and has allowed the rise of an underground class of undocumented immigrants.

''I think Framingham defines where we are as a country," he said. ''And I think over the summer we are going to realize, as a country, that the immigration system needs to be fixed and needs to be fixed in a way that moves us forward, not backward."

Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 or by e-mail at lkocian@globe.com.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.

RACE, RACISM.......always the same.

We had better get smart and realize that this is their playbook. It's time we created a way to COUNTER IT BEFORE THEY CAN OPEN THEIR MOUTHS. As long as they can utter those words they're going to be quoted.

No question that they're going to utter 'those words'. They don't have a leg to stand on, they have no reasonable argument, so fling an insult or two in there. As long as that insult REQUIRES a response then all debate must stop...right there...BAM! Just pitch another accusation back....something like...You're LAWLESS..probably a better line would appear ..depending on the speaker...but it would have best effect if a single beat wasn't missed before the response was made, then continue on as if uninterrupted. I like 'You're UN-American'....let 'em chew on that for awhile.

This stupidity of ignoring the law and attempting to promote 'rights' for illegals still boggles my mind. We need to crush those aiders and abetters like a tub of grapes.

RR