Will The Essex County Freeholders trade the liberty & well being of 1200 people for $50 mill?

by: koleary

Wed Sep 07, 2011 at 04:31:17 PM EDT

The Essex County Freeholders have placed a resolution on the agenda for the 9/7 meeting to approve a new contract with ICE that would increase the number of immigration detainees at the Essex County Jail and Delaney Hall to 1200.  

According to the Essex County Executive, Joe DiVincenzo, this contract is a "home run" because it would generate $50 million/year in revenue for the county.  However there has been no discussion of the human misery that will be inflicted in order to realize this financial benefit.  

A Dream Deferred

by: Bill Orr

Sat Dec 25, 2010 at 09:35:31 AM EST

In the meantime in NJ immigrants contribute mightily to our state. However, their incarceration is carried out without the rights normally extended to others, and some are mistakenly detained and deported. Friends, family, lawyers and clergy have difficulty visiting them. Their food and medical care is subpar. This results in human rights abuses and inhumane treatment.

Last week it was announced that Essex County is the apparent winner of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) competition to build a new 2,700 person immigrant jail. There were so many problems with treatment of inmates in the New York City ICE Varick Center that they closed the facility. Many of the detainees were transferred to NJ. Soon there will be new cells for even more immigrants from NJ and elsewhere at a remote Newark location adjoining the Essex County Detention Center.

Essex County will not see all of this money either as a private, for-profit company, namely Community Education Centers, or CEC, is said to be involved in the planned expansion. Reform Jersey Now board member and Christie confidant Bill Palatucci is a Senior VP of CEC. This below-the- radar prison company has long held lucrative contracts and a cosy relationship with the state Department of Corrections. These are contracts which could just as easily be held by a broader group of organizations including the non-profit NJAC. The result of DOC actions has been reduced costs for its operations, but little evidence of benefit for the inmates. The same might be expected with a CEC-Essex County deal.  

As IRATE-First Friends of Elizabeth says, "Immigrant detention is morally wrong, legally suspect and wasteful of taxpayer funds." On this Christmas Day let's include the dreams of immigrants in our thoughts.

Calling for change in the immigration detention system in NJ and nationwide

by: kwilkinson

Sun Aug 15, 2010 at 03:17:34 PM EDT

As stated in the well-known report "Locked Up But Not Forgotten": "In effect, immigration detention is punishment - not just for the immigrants in detention, but for their families and communities as well."

She has an action alert calliing on Napolitano to allow contact visits across the board, including mention of the report in the email to Napolitano.  We've sent the Secretary the report and heard back on her behalf from Phyllis Coven, ICE's outreach person, saying they have every intention of opening access to families and community for people in their custody and plan to allow a minimum of one hour for visits, just as soon as the new detention standards come out (they've been stalled this summer).  I'm afraid alot of field offices and facilities haven't gotten the memo.  

Aside from a few facilities shutting down (there are now 270 nationwide instead of the 350 there were a year ago), nothing's changed, in fact, deportations and detention under Obama has increased and last month ICE signed a new contract with Orange County, CA to house between 850 and 1,400 detainees in two jails there.  I so wanted to be at the county board meeting where they voted to rent the bed space, to the tune of $35 million, and ask the county supervisors if they knew what the staffing costs would be to provide 900 detainees with hour long visits.  The proposal seemed to only include the expenses for building immigration courts in one of the facilities.

Here were some comments from our August 5th press release on the one year anniversary (Aug 6) of Assistant Secretary "Build a Better Mousetrap" Morton's announcement that ICE would move away from detaining people in criminal settings.

"Instead of seeing improved conditions for immigrant detainees in facilities like Monmouth County jail, we're seeing more detention beds, people being moved from facility to facility without easy access to counsel or family visits, and ongoing violations of ICE's own national detention standards," said Daniel Cummings...

On Monday, the ACLU of Southern California and its partners, including the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project, filed the first class action lawsuit in the country on behalf of mentally ill and mentally disabled detainees who are "left defenseless in a system they cannot comprehend" where, according to the complaint, "the Government has established no procedures for identifying whether a person is 'incompetent' in the first instance; no procedures for evaluating the mental health of individuals in immigration proceedings... no system for appointing counsel for those incompetent to represent themselves; and no rules for determining how people subject to prolonged detention as a result of their mental disabilities can be considered for release from incarceration pending resolution of their immigration cases."

"Assistant Secretary Morton issued a June 30th memo directing field offices not to spend detention resources on vulnerable populations, including the elderly and mentally ill or disabled.  But vulnerable detainees continue to be held in New Jersey jails, including Monmouth County jail," said Karina Wilkinson

Casa Freehold, New Labor and the Monmouth County Coalition for Immigrant Rights are calling on Monmouth County Sheriff Golden to end the Monmouth County contract with ICE.

His number is:  732-431-7139 in case you want to join our call to end detention in Monmouth.

NY Times Covers our Call for Immigration Detention Reform!

by: kwilkinson

Fri Apr 30, 2010 at 11:35:42 AM EDT

Thrilled that the report we've been working on for 6 months, Locked Up But Not Forgotten is finally out and linked on the NY Times website following Nina Bernstein's coverage of some of our stories yesterday.  (I wouldn't have minded if my first name weren't printed as 'Karin'.  As manglings of my name go, I prefer Katrina.)

We had supporting statements that weren't covered -- Star Ledger was a no show-- from Senator Menendez:

The more sunlight is shone on the conditions behind the walls of our detention centers, the more we can ensure that all of our fellow human beings are treated humanely. I commend these groups for taking the initiative to investigate and compile this important report.

Congressman Payne:

At the end of the day, everyone is a human being who deserves to be treated with fairness and dignity.  When that does not happen, it is imperative that we, as a society, decry the deplorable treatment and sound the clarion call to put a stop to it.  I appreciate these hard-working groups that are giving a voice to the voiceless and calling on all stakeholders to take action against the inhumane treatment of those in detention centers.

and Congressman Holt:

The lack of transparency and access to detainees makes it difficult for them to receive due process.  I thank these New Jersey immigration advocates for their valuable report and recommendations.

After our press conference yesterday in front of Newark ICE, we went up to deliver the report to Newark ICE's leadership, apparently the Field Office Director Scott Weber is on assignment in DC. To the best we could understand, someone named Corzine (!) was going to come out and accept it. I had to leave, but the rest of the group ended up being escorted out by uniformed officers for 'demonstrating' because a few people had the printed 'No one is illegal' signs.  They had to just leave the report at the front desk. Amy Gottlieb of AFSC, discussed that briefly (right after the oil spill coverage) on wbai Thursday Apr 29 6pm evening news, but the reporters really s/have been there for that, or at least a photographer!

I'm learning way more than I ever wanted to this week about how free speech rights can be curtailed in federal buildings and county jails.

Hudson Jail Hunger Strike Among Immigrant Detainees Over Phone Charges

by: kwilkinson

Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 02:59:27 PM EDT

Move Across Hudson Further Isolates Immigration Detainees

When federal authorities shut down New York City's only immigration detention center last month, and sent most of its detainees to a county jail in New Jersey over protests by their advocates, Obama administration officials stressed that the jail was only a short drive from the city. But under a contract with a private telephone company, calls to detainees' families and lawyers back in New York are decidedly long distance. The result is a 800 percent increase in the cost of a call, to more than 89 cents a minute, in a phone system so cumbersome that detainees say it impedes their ability to contest deportation or contact relatives. In protest, the detainees have sent appeals for help to the American Bar Association, signed by more than 180 detainees, and have threatened a hunger strike. They cite exorbitant telephone costs as their central grievance, but also complain of poor health care, confiscation of legal documents and mistreatment by guards at the jail, the Hudson County Correctional Center in Kearny.

The county response is carefully phrased (bolding mine):

"No one is unwilling to listen to these concerns and to make sure that detainees are treated with respect and dignity," said James Kennelly, a spokesman for Hudson County and the jail. "We take the care and custody of the detainees very seriously."

This same spokesman told the Jersey Journal on March 1st in response to our complaints over a 90 day update rule for visitors lists - the rule delayed by months visits to our former Middlesex detainees and prevented us from visiting some of the detainees at all:

"That was clearly miscommunication that we regret," said county spokesman Jim Kennelly about the 90-day message. "We don't want anyone in the detainee population or advocates for them thinking that we are trying to limit their access."

We weren't just thinking they were trying to limit our access.  Our access was very clearly limited.  They claim they've stopped limiting the detainees' lists to 5 visitors. And that was the part I got to respond to, without seeing his exact quote first:

"Hudson County jail realized how arbitrary and unjust it was to limit detainees to visiting lists of five people," said Karina Wilkinson, co-founder of Middlesex County Coalition for Immigration Rights. "That is a small piece of a huge problem. Immigrant detainees continue to be denied access to the community, lawyers and family."

And if you weren't born here, or can't prove it, beware of which side of the street you ride your bike on, from the Times article.  It can mean life or death ICE issued press releases on two more deaths in detention in the last 5 days, a 36 year old Liberian woman and a 68 year old Guatemalan. Remind me why we're detaining 68 year old men in detention centers with inadequate medical care?

One detainee who signed the petition is Orville Wayne Allen, 47, a longtime New York State resident who has spent more than 19 months in immigration custody without seeing an immigration judge, his fiancée, Desiree Williams, said. When a police officer in Mount Vernon stopped him for riding a bicycle on the wrong side of a street in 2008, she said, a database check turned up an order of deportation in absentia from the 1980s, something a lawyer had supposedly resolved years before.

Ms. Williams, who works weekdays, has not seen him since he was transferred last month, because the jail allows only weekday visits.

ICE detention standards clearly provide for weekend and holiday visits.  They are just unwilling to impose these standards on the county jails, even while they are paying over $12 million into Hudson county coffers, of federal tax dollars that could be better spent, if ICE would just review on a case by case basis who actually poses a flight risk or danger.  Mandatory detention has to end.  For more info about the national campaign, including about a hunger strike in Texas, go to the Dignity Not Detention website.

Immigration Reform - Dignity Not Detention Campaign Rollout, Spotlight on Hudson

by: kwilkinson

Sat Feb 27, 2010 at 12:08:40 PM EST

Hudson County Jail is getting national attention.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Jan 12th that it would close the 300 bed detention center in Manhattan, Varick St and move them to "another facility in the NY metropolitan area", because Varick didn't meet their standards for outdoor exercise and visitation.  As if any jail in New Jersey meets ICE's detention standards. Oh yeah, and because $250 per night (that was going to an Alaskan Indian tribe) was twice what Hudson charges, $111 per night.  Think of the cost savings (if you do, you will find out that that saves less than 1% of the $1.7 billion budgeted last year for custody operations).  NY and NJ advocates, as Bill Orr pointed out here, are calling for review of who needs to be in detention.  We are at a record number of over 32,000 people being detained each night.

NY/NJ advocates held a press conference on Thursday as part of the rollout of the national Detention Watch Network's Dignity Not Detention campaign.

Alix Nguefuck of the American Friend Service Committee, Newark spoke about the issue of transfers, which we've seen increased numbers of in NJ, because of the closure of Middlesex on Oct 1, which I wrote about at the time.  Some of the detainees we used to visit have been transferred up to 3 or 4 times between Essex, Hudson and Monmouth since Oct!

End NJ Reaping Blood Money through Inhumane Immigrant Detention

by: Bill Orr

Fri Feb 26, 2010 at 10:09:38 AM EST

Our federal government is dithering on immigration reform. The recently created NJ group, Latino Action Network, is rightly despairing of any action this year. However, such does not stop NJ from instituting reform of its own.  

Local NJ counties and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can only be viewed as shameful in their treatment of incarcerated immigrants. It is time for NJ to end the cruel and inhumane practices in its detention centers.  

These counties, including Union, Bergen, Hudson, Essex and Monmouth, have reaped big money - blood money -  for their coffers by renting out over-priced, under-serviced, and over- crowded jail space to ICE for locking up immigrants.  Conditions are often squalid. Medical care has been limited and sometimes non-existent. The food is often so bad that there have been hunger strikes. Visitation rights are cumbersome and hours are limited. Nationally documented cases of deaths resulting from negligence and abuse have been reported. Should our counties be in the business of generating extra income through mistreatment of immigrants?

ICE, a unit of Homeland Security, not only countenances such practices but aggravates them.  They make it difficult for concerned family and relatives to find out where immigrants are incarcerated.  They frequently move immigrants from one facility to another.  No sooner  does a public advocate begin to help a detainee than the person may be moved to another location.  So bad were some of  the practices in the NYC Varick facility that ICE recently began transferring its detainees to a Hudson County jail in Kearny and to other NJ centers. Will they be better off in NJ? The NJ and NY ACLU recently wrote to Homeland Security expressing grave concern.

Congratulations to those individuals who staged a ten-mile walk last week from the foot bridge for Ellis Island to the Elizabeth Detention Center to highlight the plight of immigrant detainees. "America's greatness is represented by the Statue of Liberty over there, not the Elizabeth Detention Center," said Shai Goldstein, spokesman for the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network.

The problems regarding ICE's deportation system, of course are broader. As the NY and NJ  ACLU group indicated in their letter, "Detention itself is a relatively new, costly, and inappropriate response to other problems within the deportation system that are better addressed by true alternatives to detention aimed at reducing rather than expanding the detention system as a whole." The Ellis Island organizers seek an overhaul of immigration policy and want to see "community-based alternatives to detention as well as judicial discretion in the deportation."

In the meantime local immigrant detention continues to be characterized by inhumanity, secrecy and greed. NJ should undertake its own reform and assure that humane standards are being met in our detainee jails.

So far local jails have made only token improvements. In his budget address to the legislature Governor Christie said, "For those who stay in the corner defending parochial interests, please be on notice - people will band together and drag you to the center of the room to make our state the place we know it can be."  Go for it Governor! Or else the courts should intervene.

\

Good Week for Immigration Detention Reform

by: kwilkinson

Tue Oct 06, 2009 at 03:07:37 PM EDT

"We're done. I told them to come get the computers."  Framingham Police Chief Steve Carl

"It doesn't benefit the police department to engage in deportation and immigration enforcement,"

And now today's news, announcing reforms of ICE detention, Nina Bernstein's story and release of Dora Schriro's Report and Recommendations on detention reform.

Topped off by the new rules for Maricopa County making Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Phoenix, "furious," HuffPo.  Though this only covers the cops in the street, so they are still detaining people who come into the county jail.

Gives one hope for change.  In the meantime, I'd love for them to make it easier for those of us in our Middlesex visitors program to find the guys we were visiting who are now dispersed to Monmouth, Hudson and Essex jails. And I'm hearing that in Essex, you can wait for 3 hours and not even get the 15 minute visit!

Guadagno - Just Plain Wrong about AG Letters

by: kwilkinson

Sat Sep 05, 2009 at 02:48:40 PM EDT

Milgram sent letters Friday and Tuesday to officials in three counties saying they should show no bias when upholding the law...
Monmouth County and Morristown, along with the Hudson County Department of Corrections, are among 79 departments nationwide that have been accepted into the program, known as 287(g), which was overhauled to allay fears it would be used to target or harass immigrant groups.

The third letter was sent to Corrections Director Oscar Aviles of the Hudson County jail.

Guadagno's accusation that Milgram is 'misinformed' and 'hate-mongering' is based on Guadagno's statement:

"Under our program, we simply ensure that if you are detained in our jail and you are an illegal alien, you will be identified, processed by federal authorities and deported if appropriate," Guadagno said.

I've discussed here why this is only going to lead to civil rights abuses and not net any criminals who aren't already covered under the AG's directive.  But Ann Milgram was probably just covering all bases, seeing as the Monmouth sheriff's department does have a 'law enforcement' division. While Guadagno hasn't applied for a 'task force', do we know that she can't have some of her law enforcement officers trained by ICE?  From the sheriff's department website:

"The Sheriff's Office law enforcement division consists of a warrants division and fugitive task force, a criminal investigations bureau, a court security unit, a civil process unit, a canine unit and an id bureau."

Milgram's letter just looked to be a generic reminder to both Morristown, that is asking for a task force and Monmouth that, according to Guadagno's statements, wants to use 287g for corrections officers.

I, for one, am pleased to see the following in Ann Milgram's letter:

In addition, any law enforcement officer that exercises authority under Section 287g must submit monthly reports to the Director of the Division of Criminal Justice, as required by Directive 2007-3, that document the name, address, gender, date of birth, country of birth, race and ethnicity of the individual queried; the location of the encounter; the criminal offense that formed the basis for the arrest; the outcome of the inquiry; and whether the individual was taken into custody or otherwise detained based upon immigration status.

This is how you track instances of racial profiling and is exactly what is missing, according to the ACLU, from the new 'Memo of Agreement' put out by ICE that is supposed to address the issues of racial profiling.

On another topic, in the sheriff's department statements on the cost of housing federal detainees, either she or her spokeswoman is misleading, if not outright wrong, just throwing facts around in a way that it's hard to tell whether the contract is saving the county money or not.  In a August 20th APP OpEd, Guadagno tries to answer the allegation that she is losing the county money, after her spokeswoman said the county receives $105/night for federal inmates and it costs $134/night to house them.  The reasoning is pretty convoluted.

If we canceled the per-diem program, there would be fewer in each mandated housing area but, under state law, each area would still remain open. We would have empty beds with the same overhead with no offsetting federal income. Eliminating the program as the editorial urges would end a revenue stream of approximately 10 times the amount saved. Thus, eliminating the per-diem program would plainly result in added cost to the already overtaxed people of this county.

I don't find that so plain, especially compared to her spokeswoman's numbers.  So, it looks like those numbers are inaccurate or don't factor everything in.

I have to laugh that she thinks the APP is calling to cut the contract for federal and ICE detainees in the Monmouth County jail.  They're advocating that if you take her spokeswoman's numbers on face value.  

In light of the county's budget troubles, the Board of Freeholders should do what it neglected to do during the budget hearings: Insist that Sheriff Kim Guadagno ... justify the expense of housing federal prisoners. If she can't, at least one wing of the jail should be shut down, with the staff reduced accordingly.

Guadagno apparently gave no hint at the time that the federal prisoners were costing the county money.

I would want the ICE contract cut because ICE doesn't enforce its standards for jail conditions, even when deaths have occurred, as in Monmouth and Middlesex, and because it doesn't make sense to detain people with only administrative violations. Most of the 1,000 rented jail beds in NJ are a waste of federal dollars.

Guadagno's losing money for Monmouth? & Mouse traps

by: kwilkinson

Wed Aug 12, 2009 at 06:23:19 PM EDT

Examiner's:  Opinions differ on need for immigration checks

APP:  Monmouth jail got good deal on housing illegals

Even Chris Christie has pointed out that "illegals" as a term is incorrect, as many people who are undocumented have over-stayed a visa, which is not a crime.  Drivers who let their parking meter run out are not 'illegal drivers'.

The content of the APP article, on the other hand, is surprising, they quote Guadagno's Sheriff's Dept Spokeswoman as saying:

The rate paid by the federal government to house detainees at the 1,328-inmate-capacity Monmouth County Jail was increased from $80 per day to $105 in May 2007...

Scott said the cost of housing, feeding and guarding an inmate comes to $134 per day...

There are currently 250 federal inmates housed at the $105 daily rate. Of those, 150 are being held on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Scott said.

We have a similar number of ICE detainees in the Middlesex County jail and there is no way that the cost of housing the detainees exceeds the $95 that Mdlsx County receives.  

Guadagno's budget needs to be reviewed in detail, since as a commenter on the APP website, 'simplicitytruth' points out, since her spokeswoman is saying this could be costing the county up to $2,646,250 per year!

The bottom line on the program that Guadagno is going after, is that it will not generate that many more candidates for rented beds in the Monmouth jail, since the Attorney General's directive already requires that people who commit felonies or DUIs be turned over to ICE.  That means that anyone who is questioned by the newly trained corrections officers (meals and per diem for the training at the county's expense, along with overtime for the replacement officers) will have committed a minor offense.

It will lead to more civil rights violations, since revisions to the mandatory detention policy have not been implemented.  Detainees have no guaranteed right to a lawyer, and most can't afford one.  Mukasay, in a midnight ruling, didn't even want them to be allowed the right to competent counsel, but luckily that was rescinded.

Last month, ICE announced new Memos of Agreement with agencies and counties that have or will get 287g, which the ACLU points out is worse than the Bush administration one in certain ways - letting these guys issue warrants instead of a judge has me worried for one.  You can see their comparison of the old and the new memos here.

The priorities under the new MOA are supposed to be for exactly the kind of violations that are already covered by the Attorney General's directive.

If you want to see the clearest case of 287g gone wrong, check out The New Yorker's article on Sheriff Joe, Arpaio of Maricopa Co. Arizona.  It gives some insight into Sec'y Napolitano too.

Guadagno has at least said that visitors to the jail won't be checked, but most people who are out of status are too afraid to anyway, even if it's a close family member being detained.

So why does Guadagno want to cost the county money and antagonize the community?  According to the Latino Leadership Alliance of Monmouth county, it's all for political gain.  It seems we will be seeing alot about the immigration issue during the upcoming campaign.  I'm prepared for a very ugly election season.

Finally, the APP quote from John Morton, the new director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is downright scary and says alot about where the new administration is going.

Morton said ICE has long-term plans to find arrangements that are more suitable than prison-like facilities. "We're going to focus on building a better mouse trap," he said.

Comparing inmates to mice puts me in mind of Art Spiegelman's Maus.

Latinos in NJ for Obama Part 2: THE Latino Issue.

by: El Sanchez19

Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 04:41:40 AM EST

Seton Hall's Center for Social Justice and the Brazilian Voice filed FOIA litigation today in the District of New Jersey to compel DHS and ICE to release records on ICE home raids in NJ.

http://law.shu.edu/csj/ice_doc...

Senator Obama:

I am a simple minded voter. Your story and that of your family is what first drew me to your vision for the United States of America. Like the vast majority of Americans (with the exception of bluejersey junkies), I do not know, nor can I possibly absorb or break down, your position on every single imaginable issue dear to the heart of the American electorate. My decision to support you in this election is based purely on the issue that is closest to my heart and the issue that affects ALL Latinos in New Jersey and the United States. My family crossed the border "illegally" from Tijuana to San Diego twenty years ago looking for opportunity. I was but seven years old, but I can still remember the desert sand, the tripwires, the "coyotes", ducking from border patrol, and crossing a highway towards living the dream that I live today.

http://lawprofessors.typepad.c...

My father came to this country from a small village in Africa because he was looking for opportunity. So when I see people who are coming across these borders, whether legally or illegally, I know that the motivation is trying to create a better life for their children and their grandchildren.

The Arizona Republic reports that it's Obama's work on issues that touch the Latino community -- such as racial profiling -- and his personal experience with immigration that makes him a strong bet for these Latino leaders:
John Laredo, former Arizona House Minority Leader, said that the work Obama, who is an Illinois senator, has done against racial profiling and other issues have benefited Latinos...
State Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, said Obama's experience addressing the needs of people of color is documented. "Look at what he's done for minorities and Latinos in Illinois," he told Latino voters.
"When you look at education, health care, housing and particularly immigration, Obama has been at the forefront."
Former State Sen. Alfredo Gutierrez said because Obama's father was from Kenya, Obama can relate to many Latinos' desire for immigration reform.

Immigration cuts across all racial and political Latino party lines. Many so called Democrats reveal their true Republican identities when addressing this issue.

Hillary: As one of my former coworkers once exclaimed, "Could you at least pretend to be a Democrat?!"

ICE raid in Englewood??!!

by: lsanchez490

Tue Mar 27, 2007 at 12:23:28 AM EDT

END THE ATTACK ON IMMIGRANTS!
DEFEND THE RIGHTS OF ALL WHO LIVE AND WORK IN NEW JERSEY!

STATE-WIDE SPEAK-OUT AND PROTEST MEETING

Saturday March 31 1:00 PM
Paul Robeson CenterBusch Campus
600 Bartholomew Rd
Piscataway, NJ

Immigrants in New Jersey, as in the rest of the United States, are facing increasing attacks. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids are being stepped up, tearing families apart, detaining and deporting those who have lived here for years. Demagogic town governments are taking anti-immigrant measures. Morristown, for example, is planning to deputize its police as ICE agents.  Massive workplace raids like the recent one in New Bedford, Mass. can happen at any time. A New Jersey radio station, 101.5, has called for people to turn in their neighbors as suspected undocumented immigrants, encouraging vigilantism.

The attacks on migrants are attacks on all of us. They are aimed at maintaining an underclass of workers who are too terrified to assert their rights to decent pay, working conditions and living conditions.  No one, not even the government, wants to deport 12 million undocumented immigrants who are vital to the economy. The attacks and anti-immigrant laws aim to drive down the cost of all labor, benefiting employers, pitting worker against worker, and hurting us all.

We are fighting back, immigrants and native-born united!  We are speaking out against the attacks and the demagogic proposal in towns like Morristown's and Freehold.  We are starting to organize a Rapid Response Network which will give aid to those confronting ICE raids or employer abuses of immigrants. We are joining with organizations across the country to organize a Second Great  Boycott.

Speak out for the rights of ALL!

We invite your organization's endorsement and participation in this event and in an April 3 noon press conference in New Brunswick

Endorsing organizations(list in formation):
NJ May 1 Coalition
IRATE/First Friends
NJ Civil Rights Defense Committee
Philippine Forum
United Day Laborers of Freehold

Interested in reading about progressive Morristown:
Town seeks new power over illegal immigrants
Morristown wants to give its police the same authority as federal officers

Much respect to Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo.
Hispanics steamed by shock radio stunt

And from a New York Times Article, good old Freehold.

PUBLIC LIVES; Back in the Fight He Picked Decades Ago
Article Tools Sponsored By
By LYNDA RICHARDSON
Published: March 17, 2004

CESAR A. PERALES, the president of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, is revved up. But he is not losing his cool. (He is too cool for that.) He is talking about the fund's wranglings in federal court over the attempt by Freehold Borough in Monmouth County, N.J., to prevent day laborers from gathering at a vacant lot to scout for work.

''The question of the treatment of day laborers is so flagrant, I feel it viscerally,'' Mr. Perales says, leaning over to emphasize the point. ''This is to me as horrific as the segregation that the government imposed in the South. We're seeing local governments treating undocumented workers in a similar fashion, marginalizing them, not wanting them to live where they live. This is a fight that will take a long time.''