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NATIONAL NEWS
Nationwide protests will target illegal immigration
Thursday, January 5, 2006

By ELIZABETH LLORENTE
STAFF WRITER

They're tired of illegal immigration, of people who they say make a mockery of U.S. laws and drive down wages.

So on Saturday morning, immigration control activists are joining in a nationwide demonstration, "Stop the Invasion" - coordinated to take place near sites where day laborers congregate - to call for tougher enforcement of immigration laws and tighter patrolling of U.S. borders.


Some 36 groups will protest in about 20 states, including New Jersey, say national organizers.

"We want to preserve our country for everyone," said Ron Bass, founder of United Patriots of America, an Essex County-based group that is organizing the New Jersey protest. "For legal immigrants as well as other Americans.

"We want to send a message to illegal aliens that you're in this country illegally, you're breaking our laws," said Bass, who is planning to hold the protest in Bergen County, a magnet for day laborers over the last decade. He refused to disclose the exact location out of concern that pro-immigrant activists would try to undermine his group's plans.

By the numbers

Illegal immigrants, estimated

United States: Between 8 million and 11 million

New Jersey: 500,000

Sources: Census Bureau, Seton Hall University Institute on Work, Pew Hispanic Center

New Jersey has the nation's fifth-largest immigrant population and increasingly draws illegal immigrants because of its many ethnic communities and plentiful jobs in such areas as restaurants, construction and landscaping.

The population of illegal immigrants in the state has been estimated at 300,000 to 500,000. They come mostly from Spanish-speaking countries, particularly Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, among others.

The nationwide protest is being coordinated by the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, a group that advocates closing U.S. borders and deporting illegal immigrants.

One of its founders, Paul Streitz, said the demonstration is meant to call attention to illegal immigration at a time when Congress is poised to discuss major immigration reform proposals.

Nationally coordinated protests usually are staged by pro-immigration advocates. Those on the opposing side tend to be less public - fearing retaliation - and usually draw much smaller crowds to their events.

But immigration control groups have grown bolder as they've seen a conservative momentum build in Washington backing tougher border enforcement.

Recent polls show many Americans believe some illegal immigrants should have a chance to become legal, but they also think the U.S. government has been too lax in controlling the borders. So, in an important election year, many in Congress are making immigration a cause célèbre.

On the more liberal end, some bills call for legalizing illegal immigrants who pass a certain set of criteria, and providing temporary visas for foreigners to do jobs that are hard to fill with Americans.

On the conservative end, other bills call for making illegal immigration a felony, and giving local police more powers to arrest people for being here illegally. Some of those bills have been called the most draconian immigration measures in recent U.S. history.

Like many immigration-control proponents, Streitz says that simply enforcing existing laws would be enough to solve many of the problems associated with illegal immigration.

"Additional laws will help, but what good would they be if there's no enforcement?" he asked. "We already have many strong laws."

Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based pro-immigrant group, says the system needs to change but that tougher enforcement alone is not the answer.

"We do have a broken immigration system," Kelley said. "But what we need is to control immigration in a realistic and effective way that gives people who are deserving legal channels through which to come here.

"All these years we've thrown more and more money at border control and we just have more illegal immigrants than ever," she said.

Another immigration advocate is condemning the protests as "racist."

"These people have to face that our country has supported many of the governments that have created instability that force these people to leave their countries," said Esther Chavez, a community activist for American Friends Service Committee in Newark, who often assists day laborers.

"How can we just ignore that connection?"

"Illegal immigrants are the most exploited group in our country," Chavez said. "My goodness, right now I have 29 active cases of day laborers who've been stiffed by the contractors who they did work for. These people were worked to the bone and stiffed out of $42,000 in wages."

The protest organizers are not sympathetic.

They are determined to take their protests to the source of their concern - illegal immigrant workers - because "the real problem as we see it is the employment of illegal immigrants."

"If you dry up the employment, the illegals will go home," Streitz said. "That's why we going to these sites for our protest, to make that point."

In New York, protests are planned for Rockland County and Long Island, where confrontations between residents and day laborers have at times turned violent.

"Rockland County has an estimated 11,000 illegal aliens who are occupying low-income housing, causing rezoning and a virtual war among mayors and town supervisors over rezoning," said William Tibbe of the Citizens Civil Defense, which is staging a protest in Spring Valley. "Illegals violate health codes, fire codes, sanitation codes, pile up many to a single-family dwelling. They degrade neighborhoods, lower housing values, and lower wages of working Americans. Worst of all, Mexico has a plan to colonize America. We want to take back our neighborhoods and secure our borders."

E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com