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LOCAL NEWS


Protesters spread blame for illegal immigration

Sunday, January 14, 2007

By JASON TSAI
STAFF WRITER



BERGENFIELD -- In a flush of emotion, a rain-soaked demonstrator ran up to Ronald Bass on Saturday and pointed across Columbia Avenue.

"Those two guys are going to drive off," she said to the executive director of the United Patriots of America, gesturing at a pair of day laborers lumbering toward a truck. "We should tell the cops to check those guys for valid driver's licenses."


But Bass, who led the demonstration against illegal immigration that took place near a well-known pickup spot for day laborers, shook his head.

"That's not what we're here for," he said. "This isn't their fault."

The 20 or so people who gathered near Bergenfield Borough Hall spoke generally about illegal immigration and found fault in numerous places.

"The government's to blame for our lax immigration policies," Bass said.

Gayle Kesselman, chairman of New Jersey Citizens for Immigration Control, blames businesses for illegal immigration.

"Big business has been conspiring to declare war on the American middle class," the Carlstadt resident said. "The jobs are going out the door."

Miguel Cruz, a member of the anti-illegal-immigration group You Don't Speak for Me, said "needy" immigrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border are ultimately at fault. He stressed the distinction between anti-immigration groups and organizations against illegal immigration.

"It's depressing, but it's unfair that some of us are being unfairly punished," he said.

The 8 a.m. protest, which culminated in a march to Borough Hall, took place across from a spot where immigrant day laborers regularly gather and hope to be selected for paying jobs. Members of Bass's Linden-based organization have protested against illegal immigration on Columbia Avenue each Saturday since last spring, he said.

The laborers remained silent Saturday while some protesters across the street glared at them and shook their anti-illegal immigration signs.

Todd Vismuth, a passing pedestrian, said he had no problem with the day laborers.

"Sometimes people need something to protest," Vismuth said.

E-mail: tsai@northjersey.com


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