Thread: Riverside NJ Changes Immigration Policy

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?secti ... id=4491712

RIVERSIDE, NJ - August 24, 2006 - Changes to Riverside's tough policy on illegal immigrants met with approval last night, but still hundreds of immigrants have moved out.

That is the same New Jersey town that passed a law that fines anyone who hires or rents to illegal immigrants.
Township officials made a major change to the law at a meeting Wednesday night. Employers or renters will not be fined if they can prove they did not know the immigrants they hired or housed, were illegal.

Most of the people who spoke last night favored the law, but not Aida Cordova. She and her family are in this country legally. But since the law was passed, she says people have shouted at her family, to go home.

Riverside has yet to fine anyone for breaking the illegal immigrant law.

Most of the people who spoke last night favored the law, but not Aida Cordova. She and her family are in this country legally. But since the law was passed, she says people have shouted at her family, to go home.

Suprise, suprise, suprise.

it's sad , , because of those illegals , legals get slack too!!

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news ... 346981.htm

Posted on Thu, Aug. 24, 2006

Riverside bolsters its ban on illegal immigrants

By Gaiutra Bahadur
Inquirer Staff Writer

Riverside's council last night reinforced the ordinance that has triggered a court challenge and made the small Burlington County community an unlikely field in the increasingly bitter battle over illegal immigration.

It approved several amendments that do not alter the thrust of the ordinance, which bans hiring or housing illegal immigrants, but were designed to help it withstand the legal challenge.

More than 250 residents attended last night's raucous meeting. Many expressed anger at the Rev. Miguel Rivera, the leader of a Latino clergy group that has sued the town in federal court and held prayer vigils and protests against the ordinance.

"This so-called reverend says he's not done with Riverside," resident George Highland said. "But I say we're not done with him either."

The township became one of a handful of municipalities across the country to take immigration enforcement into its own hands on July 26.

The ordinance fines landlords at least $1,000 for renting to an illegal immigrant. It also denies business permits and licenses to any employer of an illegal immigrant, for a period of at least five years. A dozen or so other municipalities are considering similar crackdowns.

The ordinance has deepened divisions in the Delaware River community of 8,000, a faded mill town recently transformed by immigrants from Brazil and Central America.

A Sunday prayer vigil organized by Rivera's group, the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, to protest the ordinance grew ugly when hundreds of counter-demonstrators, some bearing Confederate flags and some making Nazi salutes, showed up. Some spat and cursed at immigrant supporters.

Mayor Charles Hilton Jr. opened last night's meeting with a plea to the audience to be respectful and polite.

"Nothing good will come from personal attacks, and they will not be tolerated," he said.

Still, a few residents shouted and jeered at Andrew Viola, an attorney for a coalition of businessmen and landlords opposed to the ordinance.

He said the law "subjects our local businessmen to repercussions if they cut the wrong person's hair, if they sell the wrong person eggs or give them directions on the street."

Aida Cordova, a legal immigrant from Ecuador who rose to defend the town's immigrants, also was heckled. "I am a resident," she said, her voice trembling. "I pay taxes. I live in this town for six years. My children were born in this country."

The council inserted the word knowingly to provisions describing employers and landlords who do business with illegal immigrants. It set $2,000 as the maximum limit for penalties, in accordance with state law. And it inserted a definition of illegal immigrant into the ordinance.

The absence of that definition was one of the grounds for the suit against the township and Mayor Hilton filed in U.S. District Court in Newark last week.

The legal challenge contends that the ordinance is vague and could lead to racial profiling. The suit, which seeks $10 million in damages, also says that the ordinance is unconstitutional because it trespasses onto turf reserved for the U.S. government.

Township solicitor Doug Heinold has said the ordinance is legal because it penalizes businesses rather than illegal immigrants.

The suit against Riverside makes similar arguments as another, also filed on Aug. 15, against Hazleton, Pa., the community that inspired the town and about a dozen others nationwide.

The lawsuits are the first challenges to towns wading into immigration enforcement.


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Contact staff writer Gaiutra Bahadur at 215-854-2601 or bahadug@phillynews.com.

He said the law "subjects our local businessmen to repercussions if they cut the wrong person's hair, if they sell the wrong person eggs or give them directions on the street."

They try and make it sound so ridiculous! I guess some really ignorant people believe that garbage!