Thread: Immigrant becomes candidate, lashes out

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Immigrant becomes candidate, lashes out
By David McLaughlin/ Daily News Staff
Wednesday, December 28, 2005 - Updated: 12:33 AM EST

FRAMINGHAM -- A fourth candidate has jumped into the selectmen’s race -- a 32-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who has compared a local anti-illegal immigration group to the Nazis.

Mario Alvarez will face off against a group of candidates that includes Jim Rizoli, an outspoken critic of illegal immigrants. In a letter to the Daily News on Monday, Alvarez described Rizoli’s group, CCFIILE, as "reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party."

Alvarez yesterday went on to accuse Rizoli and supporters of Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement of "intimidating anyone that is different from them" and "paint(ing) everybody as illegal whether they are or not."

Rizoli, who ran last year for selectman and received about 950 votes, fired back at those charges. He called Alvarez "a nutcase" who "needs to have his brain examined."

"He’s the one who is a Nazi and a racist," Rizoli said. "He’s a racist against American citizens."

Rizoli and Alvarez, a real estate broker, are taking on Chairwoman Katie Murphy for the one available seat on the board. The fourth candidate is 23-year-old Marine John Grigg.

If five candidates submit nomination papers by the Jan. 17 deadline, a preliminary election would be held March 7 to cut the field to two candidates. Only Rizoli has had his signatures certified, according to the clerk’s office.

Alvarez, who has never run for a political seat in Framingham, said he is mounting a campaign because he is concerned about the town losing tax dollars as social service agency SMOC buys property.

The agency has been under fire for months over its purchase of a former nursing home on Winter Street.

Alvarez was also critical of the wet shelter downtown, which is the South Middlesex Opportunity Council runs. He echoed a persistent complaint that it draws too many people from outside the Framingham area.

"We do need services for people who need it," he said. "It’s just that I don’t think Framingham needs to pick up the bulk of the load for the rest of the state."

When asked whether selectmen could control a nonprofit’s right to buy property, Alvarez said, "I think by voicing concerns something can be achieved. As to the length about what can be achieved, I really don’t know."

"Selectmen should say something," he added, "not only to SMOC but to any nonprofit that has been going in the same route as SMOC has been going."

In his letter to the editor, Alvarez wrote that he is "sick of all the individuals and organizations" who claim to support immigrants but who have not spoken out against CCFIILE.

He names, among others, the Brazilian American Association, the public school system, SMOC, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

oh he forgot Mom and Apple Pie

a 32-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who has compared a local anti-illegal immigration group to the Nazis.

Big suprise there.

Does he have any other original ideas?