Is Riverside NJ a "municipal police state" ?

by: John C

Wed Jul 18, 2007 at 08:34:40 PM EDT

Regardless of your position on the presence of illegal immigrants in NJ, you might agree that it seems weird to force local landlords to interrogate tenants and demand to see their papers. If the landlords do not comply, Riverside might hit them with hefty fines.

Historian Jean Pfaelzer, author of Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans writes about an America that does not look like America: the eighty towns (so far) that have passed versions of the "Illegal Immigration Relief Act" criminalizing the rental of property to undocumented immigrants. Thus have wide swathes of Middle America willingly turned themselves into municipal police states. ...
In Hazelton, PA, landlords face arrest or fines of $250 per day. In Riverside NJ the fines grow to $1,000 per day. ...

I realize that Riverside is way down there near Philadelphia, but does that south Jersey location put the town in a nutty Dixie frame of mind ? Why are landlords, of all people, being placed in the position of confirming their tenants' immigration status ?

http://commonsense.o...

John C :: Is Riverside NJ a "municipal police state" ?

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Is Riverside NJ a "municipal police state" ? | 6 comments

Riverside (0.00 / 0)

This has nothing to do with geography and everything to do with a local leadership determined to trample civil rights, human rights, and the Constitution in the name of poorly disguised nativism.

We're not all "nutty" down here, not more so than any other place, thank you very mouth.

by: Brian McGinnis @ Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 01:23:02 AM UTC

by: you @ soon

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*much, not mouth....n/t (0.00 / 0)

by: Brian McGinnis @ Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 01:47:15 AM UTC

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yeah... (0.00 / 0)

...i didn't see that ironic ending coming, either.

activist for hire.

by: Jay Lassiter @ Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 01:48:24 AM UTC

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chill.... (0.00 / 0)

Just kidding about the "Dixie" thing, fellas. Union County humor. Sort of.

by: John C @ Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 11:52:55 AM UTC

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Union County people stink at geography. (0.00 / 0)

I had someone from Union County tell me that Mercer County was South Jersey.

by: Scott Weingart @ Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 12:20:07 PM UTC

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Oh, not that again ... (0.00 / 0)

Most people in Mercer County think Union County is North Jersey ...

Using the all-purpose, all-powerful rule that everything above Rt. I-78 is North Jersey, and everything below Rt. I-195 is South Jersey, and everything in between is Central NJ, a tiny portion of Mercer County actually is in south Jersey. And if you don't believe that, it may interest you to know that there is a 100-acre or so forest in Grover's Mill (Princeton Junction), West Windsor, which is ecologically identical to the Pine Barrens in terms of flora.

by: denniscmcgrath @ Thu Jul 19, 2007 at 12:36:09 PM UTC

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