Thread: NJ Town quietly rescinds tough law aimed at illegals

Town quietly rescinds tough law aimed at illegal immigrants

8:41 AM EDT, September 18, 2007
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ ... 3192.story

RIVERSIDE, N.J. - This southern New Jersey town has voted to rescind a law that made it illegal to rent or hire illegal immigrants.

The 3-1 vote Monday night puts an end to a law that got national attention and made big changes in a small town, but was never enforced.

In the end, township officials said they could not afford the legal bills that would come with defending the "Illegal Immigration Relief Act," which was similar to one from Hazleton, Pa., that a federal judge found unconstitutional earlier this year.

In contrast to the fiery meetings when the law was adopted, the committee meeting Monday was sparsely attended. No one from the public spoke about the law.

Riverside had become a haven for immigrants _ first Portuguese, then more recently, Brazilians.

Officials estimated that nearly half the town's population of around 8,000 were illegal immigrants.

Local officials said that the illegal immigrants were putting a strain on public services and already scarce parking spaces in the small town east of Philadelphia.

The law, adopted in July 2006, set fines of $1,000 on first-time offenders who knowingly hired or rented to illegal immigrants, sparking protests and counterprotests.

The exact numbers are hard to pin down, but there seemed to be a precipitous drop in the number of Brazilians in the first few months after the ordinance was passed.

Owners of downtown businesses that served mostly Portuguese speakers said they were suffering.

Township committeeman Marcus Carroll was the one member of the governing body who voted against rescinding the law.

He said that the law did have its desired impact of driving unwanted residents away.

"You can go home now and find a place to park," he said.

The Coalition of Riverside Business Owners and Landlords will probably drop its lawsuit objecting to the law, said David Verduin, president of the group.

One resident said killing the law and not spending more to defend it was the right decision. "I'm very proud of them," Joyce Horton told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill for Tuesday's newspapers.

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Information from: Courier-Post, http://www.courierpostonline.com/

one of the groups is called People for the american way

i called them earlier and left a message saying im a damn american
and this american says these laws should be enforced cuz im tired of illegals in this country having more rights then me

Another immigration ordinance bites the dust
By Eunice Moscoso | Tuesday, September 18, 2007, 01:57 PM
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/ ... nance.html

Officials in Riverside, N.J. are abandoning an immigration ordinance designed to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them.

City officials voted to rescind the ordinance because they couldn’t afford the legal bills that would come with defending the law in court, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Riverside is facing a lawsuit over the anti-illegal immigration ordinance. The law would have set fines of $1,000 on first-time offenders who knowingly hired or rented to illegal immigrants, the AP said.

A string of recent court decisions have invalidated or put on hold similar immigration ordinances, including one in Hazleton, Pa., which is considered a test case by all sides.

A federal judge ruled in July that the Hazleton ordinance would violate due process rights guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment and conflicted with federal law.

The court also ruled that the Constitution provides due process protections to all persons, including illegal immigrants.

To read more on the Riverside ordinance, click here.

To read more on recent court decisions, click here.

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