Thread: Raucous split on immigration

Raucous split on immigration
Sunday, August 12, 2007

By JAMES AHEARN
STAFF WRITER


THE MOVEMENT to crack down on illegal immigration has been most visible in small cities and towns across the country. Places like Bogota and Riverside in New Jersey, Hazleton in Pennsylvania, Farmers Branch in Texas.

You get the impression of very localized, small-scale stuff, but something bigger is happening. And it isn't just conservative Republicans who are stirring things up. Often it is a Democrat who leads the campaign, which is resonating with voters.

In suburban Suffolk County on Long Island, the first-term county executive, Steve Levy, a Democrat, has capitalized so successfully on this issue that the Republican Party has thrown in the towel and cross-endorsed him for reelection. He is, according to Newsday, probably the most formidable elected official in Long Island history.

John V. N. Klein, a widely respected Republican predecessor of Levy's in the top Suffolk job, says the man has gone from a nondescript county legislator, frequently on the wrong end of 17-1 votes, to an 800-pound gorilla, a guy who knows what his constituents want and gives it to them, undiluted.

Levy doesn't look like a gorilla. He is short and slight, with a dark mustache and a Noo-Yawk accent as broad as Queens Boulevard. One of the first things he did after his election was to try to deputize county cops to enforce federal immigration laws. The cops didn't like the idea, and Levy eventually dropped it.

However, he went on to stage three roundups of immigrants wanted for various crimes. Later, when he opposed establishment of hiring halls for day laborers, the New York Legislature's Black and Hispanic Caucus lashed back by blocking routine renewal of Suffolk's 1 percent sales tax.

Levy didn't budge. He itemized all the programs he would have to cut to make up for the lost revenue. "See the pain Albany is causing?" That was his message. People listened, and they liked what they heard. His approval rating, which had been running about 70 percent in Suffolk, soared even higher, to 80 percent. The standoff has yet to be resolved.

Adamant in Jersey

So, too, with another Democrat, the mayor of Morristown, Donald Cresitello. He has done what Levy threatened to do, applying to have town police officers trained and deputized as federal immigration agents. This resulted in a contentious rally in front of Town Hall weekend before last, with 250 people demonstrating for curbs on illegal immigrants and another 250 people, on the other side of the street, shouting raucous opposition.

The Morris County prosecutor, tipped that there was a plan to disrupt the rally, activated the county's rapid deployment team for the first time ever, and 140 state, county and municipal officers flooded into historic Morristown, backed by helicopters, horse-mounted cops and SUVs. As it turned out, the rally was not disrupted, although there were several arrests and a couple of fistfights.

When Cresitello took the stage, he was greeted by cheers from the throng in front of him and by cries of "Shame! Shame on you!" from across the street. He didn't mince words: "To the Communists across the street, and the Marxists, we know your motives, and we will not let you go forward with your intent to take over our country." A red-meat message, enthusiastically received by his supporters.

It was against this background that Governor Corzine last week announced formation of a Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigrant Policy. Its mission, pace Levy and Cresitello, is not to advise the State House on how best to fight illegal immigration. Gracious, no. It is, rather, to formulate "a comprehensive statewide strategy for weaving immigrants into the economic, social, and civic fabric of our communities and state."

The panel will include nine members of Corzine's Cabinet and will be led by Public Advocate Ronald Chen, who despite his activist portfolio is a pretty savvy guy. The 18 other members, including the heads of the African-American and Hispanic legislative caucuses, include several citizens active in minority communities, plus a Catholic monsignor from Garfield, a Bergen County undersheriff and Michael Wildes, the mayor of Englewood, who is an immigration lawyer.

As with the state commission that studied the death penalty, there are no identifiable hard-liners in the group. It is to hold hearings, consult experts and issue a report, which is not due until after the November 2008 elections. The governor and Democratic strategists, concerned particularly about this year's legislative elections, doubtless hope that formation of the new panel will tamp down get-tough agitation for a while. Maybe not.

James Ahearn is a contributing editor and former managing editor of The Record.

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qst ... FlZUVFeXk2

I like this Mayor Donald Cresitello! New Jerseyites should get behind him, and support his challenge of Sen. Lautenberg in 2008!!

What an upgrade that would be!?!