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Immigrant advocates fear restrictions will backfire
BY HEATHER APPEL
South Jersey may be a world apart from Passaic County, but communities
at both ends of the state are feeling reverberations from recent policy
changes and proposals on immigration.
Immigrant access to driver's licenses, higher education and the fate of
New Jersey's agricultural workers were prominent topics at a hearing
last week in Bridgeton. The session was the second of three planned by
the governor's Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Immigrant Policy. The
final one is tentatively scheduled for May in North Jersey.
The attorney general's directive requiring local police to inquire about
the immigration status of individuals arrested on certain criminal
charges, and proposed state legislation that would penalize employers
who hire undocumented workers also weighed heavily on people's minds as
they testified about the obstacles facing workers and employers in the
state.
The testimonies of South Jersey migrant workers, employers, clergy and
teachers painted a picture of a community on edge after a series of
immigration raids around the state, including those in Passaic in
February.
Aurelio Torres, one of several members of the Glassboro-based
Farmworkers Support Committee (which is also known as CATA, its
abbreviation in Spanish), testified that he was a passenger in a car
that was stopped by police and was arrested for no reason.
"They put me in handcuffs and took me to the police station," Torres
said in Spanish. "I asked why I was arrested, and they said, 'You owe a
ticket. You've driven a car.' " Torres said he's never driven.
"They shouldn't be arresting innocent people who have nothing to do with
crimes. Maybe they're doing it because of racism," he said. "I think the
police should investigate things better and not be stopping people for
no reason."
Around 100 people attended the hearing in the Bridgeton High School
auditorium, and 52 testified before the panel, which is chaired by
Public Advocate Ronald Chen. Eighteen of the panel's 35 members were
present. Chen could not say whether they would release an interim report
or any recommendations before the Dec. 19 deadline for their report.
Charles Lukens, of the organization Liberty and Prosperity in Atlantic
City, accused Governor Corzine of facilitating a "home invasion" of
illegal aliens, but he was one of only a handful who spoke in favor of
tighter immigration controls.
The rest testified on a range of issues, from driver's licenses to
employer penalties.
A huge percentage of the state's agricultural workforce is undocumented,
said Louis Marino, director of the Center for Human Services, which
works with migrant farmworkers around the state. With no access to
driver's licenses for many of these workers, that population is forced
to go underground, he said.
The panel also heard testimony from teachers in Bridgeton who said that
more than half their students are Spanish-speaking and many will be
ineligible for in-state tuition because of their immigration status.
Employers spoke about the detrimental effect that legislation penalizing
employers of undocumented immigrants could have on farmers and on the
state's $4.2 billion nursery and landscape industry.
Carl Nordstrom, executive director of the New Jersey Nursery and
Landscape Association, raised concerns about the state Senate bill
sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and
former Assistant Minority Leader John Adler, D-Camden, that would fine
employers who hire workers that are in the country illegally.
"This type of action will not only be detrimental to our immigrant
worker population, but each and every business that depends on these
workers every day," Nordstrom said.
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