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Area immigrants to rally against changes to the immigration laws
By JAMES DEWEESE Staff Writer, (856) 794-5114
Published: Saturday, March 18, 2006
Updated: Saturday, March 18, 2006

BRIDGETON — Organizers have chartered 10 buses to carry area residents to a rally in Trenton on Monday to protest proposed changes to federal immigration laws that would tighten border controls and place those who help undocumented workers at risk.

Southern New Jersey coordinator Ramon Hernandez, a paralegal at a Bridgeton law firm, said Monday's Statehouse rally will differ from Feb. 14's protest and work stoppage in Philadelphia in style and content but not in message.

“Things are starting to take a turn. The Senate is feeling the pressure,” Hernandez said Friday of a decision to delay voting on controversial changes to immigration laws. “They're finally starting to listen. They may not listen to one person, but now that the nation is rising up, maybe they will listen.”

Officially, Monday's rally will be aimed at channeling opposition to the Sensenbrenner-King border-control bill that passed the House of Representatives in December.

The bill, which was passed in the Senate Judiciary Committee, would criminalize illegal immigration, extend the definition of alien smuggler to anyone who helps an undocumented immigrant and fund the construction of a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border, among other things.

Already, many of the more controversial provisions of the bill, including the wall, have been stripped away as the Senate cobbles together its own immigration-reform proposal, Hernandez said.

Some of the possibilities to emerge from the Senate committee include a provision that would allow many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country to remain indefinitely but without possibility of citizenship. Immigrant adovocates worry that would create a perpetual underclass.

In February, a loose-knit coalition of organizers from the tri-state area organized a one-day work stoppage capped by a demonstration at Philadelphia's Liberty Bell to demonstrate what life would be like in America without immigrants.

Spanish-speaking immigrants were urged to call off work and shop keepers were asked to shutter their businesses.

More than 1,000 Spanish-speaking immigrants from Cumberland County attended, according to organizers.

“Bridgeton would be empty if all (of the immigrants) went home,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said the Trenton rally will focus on building unity among immigrants, community groups and politicians.

The rally will take place from noon to 4 p.m. Monday in front of the New Jersey Statehouse at 125 West State St.

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There will be no work stoppage, and store owners are being told to stay open but to donate money to help defray the cost of transportation if they can.

So far, more than 25 local businesses and farmers — those who would be most directly affected by immigration-law changes — have donated money to help cover transportation costs, Hernandez said.

Eight Trenton-bound buses are slated to depart Bridgeton from in front of the Dollar Store at 9:30 a.m. Monday, Hernandez said. Another two buses are leaving from Vineland.