Thread: Tensions over immigration in NJ town

I sent the following email to all the council members:

Sir:

I read this in an article:

"Plainfield City Council President Harold Gibson said he was unaware of the lawsuit, but that city officials had been trying to address concerns over immigration. He cited as example the city's efforts to find a solution to the day laborer situation that both respects their right to look for work while addressing quality of life concerns."

LEGAL IMMIGRANTS can get jobs........ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE NO RIGHT TO WORK.

It appears to me that Gibson doesn't care about the law and what it entails. To work on behalf of ILLEGAL ALIENS is, in my opinion, NOT working on behalf of citizens.

Perhaps the best thiing for all concerned would be for anyone working on behalf of ILLEGAL ALIENS should resign from the office they are supposed to be serving.

Originally Posted by CitizenJustice

I sent the following email to all the council members:

Sir:

I read this in an article:

"Plainfield City Council President Harold Gibson said he was unaware of the lawsuit, but that city officials had been trying to address concerns over immigration. He cited as example the city's efforts to find a solution to the day laborer situation that both respects their right to look for work while addressing quality of life concerns."

LEGAL IMMIGRANTS can get jobs........ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE NO RIGHT TO WORK.

It appears to me that Gibson doesn't care about the law and what it entails. To work on behalf of ILLEGAL ALIENS is, in my opinion, NOT working on behalf of citizens.

Perhaps the best thiing for all concerned would be for anyone working on behalf of ILLEGAL ALIENS should resign from the office they are supposed to be serving.

Thanks for following up CJ; you've made a difference.

I stopped tring to be nice some time ago.

From: buzzm1
To: reidworks@aol.com; Corys37@aol.com; davis3ward@aol.com; Esimmons01@comcast.net; councilwmnlsc@verizon.net; info@rashidburney.com; hatchgibson@aol.com; info@plainfield.com; Vanessa.Delgado@plainfield.com
Subject: Getting your priorities straight
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 9:21 am

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Plainfield, New Jersey, City Council, and Mayor's Assistant
William Reid
Cory Storch
Don Davis
Elliott Simmons
Linda Carter
Rashid Burney
Harold Gibson
Vanessa Delgado

Dear Plainfield City Council,

Illegal immigrants have absolutely no right to be in our United States. They broke our laws by entering our country.

It is also against the law for an illegal to be employed by anyone within our United States.

It is also against our laws for anyone to aid, and abet, or harbor, an illegal immigrant.

Please remind Councilman Harold Gibson that these are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, who have no right to be in our country. Based on his statement, he is apparently unaware of this, and unaware of our laws.

Plainfield City Council President Harold Gibson said he was unaware of the lawsuit, but that city officials had been trying to address concerns over immigration. He cited as example the city's efforts to find a solution to the day laborer situation that both respects their right to look for work while addressing quality of life concerns.

"I think that the people in Plainfield, in terms of the city council and the general population, they frown on illegal immigration, they don't want undocumented persons living in the town generally speaking," he said. "However, my position is that I don't think we should set ourselves up as an immigration authority in terms of people who come from other countries and work hard to better themselves and help their families."

According to the May figures, New Jersey has a 5.4% unemployment rate. Using forged, and falsified documents, illegal immigrants take jobs that rightfully belong to the citizens of Plainfield, the citizens of New Jersey, and the citizens of our United States..

The Mayor, and City Council members were elected to represent the CITIZENS OF PLAINFIELD, which illegal immigrants are not. I would strongly suggest that the Mayor, and city council members, get their priorities straight.

Sincerely,
name deleted (Buzzm1)
A very concerned citizen

OK....left Voice mail at the Harrold guys phone.....Thanks for giving us the phone numbers....and gotta love unlimited long distance!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by grandmasmad

OK....left Voice mail at the Harrold guys phone.....Thanks for giving us the phone numbers....and gotta love unlimited long distance!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go getum grandmasmad!!! We all need to become more pro-active and let them know how we really feel....and don't mince words.

New Jersey immigration lawsuit employs U.S. federal racketeering laws
By: Samantha Henry, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PLAINFIELD, N.J. - A federal lawsuit using a novel method to challenge a landlord's right to rent to illegal immigrants is stoking tensions that have been rising for years in this diverse city of 50,000 south of Newark.

A prominent group that opposes illegal immigration sued a Plainfield property management company this month, seeking to set a legal precedent by using anti-racketeering legislation to crack down on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants.

The suit alleges the company has so many undocumented tenants in their buildings that it constitutes unlawful harbouring and should be considered by the courts as a criminal enterprise that encourages illegal immigration.

The suit was brought by the Immigration Reform Law Institute - the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform - against Connolly Properties on behalf of a former Connolly employee and two tenants who are U.S. citizens.

The tenants allege they were steered into buildings occupied by illegal immigrants who were too afraid about their legal status to complain about decrepit conditions, according to Mike Hethmon, a lawyer for the group that filed the suit.

Flor Gonzalez, head of the Plainfield-based Latin American Coalition, worries that her city may become the latest battleground in the nationwide debate over immigration.

The suit comes as tensions over the city's large immigrant population are rising to a boil, she said.

Police are ticketing day labourers, there was a recent spate of beatings and robberies against immigrants, and raids by federal immigration officials.

"This is the worst it's been. There is a lot of unfriendliness and disrespect against immigrants, and a lot has been happening quietly," Gonzalez said. "We need big help in this town."

Connolly Properties has at least 45 rental complexes in northern New Jersey and Allentown, Pa.

Ron Simoncini, a Connolly spokesman, said company officials were bewildered as to why they had been targeted in an anti-racketeering lawsuit.

He said he could not comment further before filing a response to the lawsuit.

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) prosecutes organized crime and immigration-related offences, including human trafficking and harbouring and smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S.

Hethmon said his group decided to take on the case as part of its strategy of "attrition through enforcement," or urging illegal immigrants to leave the country by making it more difficult for them to find employment and housing in the U.S.

"We have felt for a long time that the racketeering statute would be useful in dealing with situations where businesses and commercial enterprises were heavily involved with illegal immigration," Hethmon said.

"We've also felt that individual citizens, communities, neighbourhoods and law-abiding small businesses have always needed tools with which they can defend themselves against the harmful effects of illegal immigration."

Using anti-racketeering laws to prosecute landlords is a legal strategy that immigration experts say they expect to be tried in other parts of the U.S.

"I think it's a new tactic because some of the other things haven't worked," said Donald W. Benson, a lawyer with the labour law firm Littler Mendelson, who has been tracking the use of RICO laws in immigration cases.

"Congress couldn't reach a consensus to reform the immigration laws, states are trying to fill in the gaps and they're having varied success, and local groups are trying to work through local ordinances, so it's just one part of a much bigger picture of immigration struggles in the U.S."
http://www.cftktv.com/news/56/741632