Town seeks new power over illegal immigrants

Star-Ledger ^ | March 13, 2007 | MAURA McDERMOTT

[alice_in_bubbaland]

Taking a harder line on illegal immigrants, Morristown is seeking to have its police officers deputized as federal immigration officers, making the community one of the first in the nation to undertake such an effort.

If accepted into a program run by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Morristown officers would gain the ability to check suspects' immigration status, charge them with civil immi gration violations and order them to appear in federal immigration court. Those duties are generally carried out by federal authorities

[alice_in_bubbaland]

My hats off to Morristown. It's about time and a great idea!

[mtbopfuyn]

Woo hoo! Let's hear it for Morristown, NJ and Hazelton, PA!!!

[Theo]

How dare they enforce immigration laws. That responsibility is supposed to be left to ... nobody.

[Irontank]

This is good news...would deprive the ACLU and other illegal alien agitator groups of one of their primary arguments against local authorities seeking to ensure their towns are not overrun with illegals...that enforcement of immigration laws is strictly a federal issue (the illegal alien agitators know full well that federal authorities will not enforce immigration laws)

[nmh]

This had been the only thing good in the news in New Jersey. It needs to spread to other towns.

ILLEGAS have taken over landscaping, painting, driveway paving, restaurant cooks, waitressing etc.. THESE are jobs LEGAL citizens WANT.

I know for a fact, one landscaper that has a nursery will be ending his business in five years. You ask why five years? Because he has commercial contracts for that long. His customer base is NOT renewing their contracts with him because ILLEGAS are under bidding them through companies run by LEGAL citizens and employing dirt cheap ILLEGALS.

You need to get at the EMPLOYER! Fine them so much that there is NO PROFIT in employing them. When there is NO MONEY, there is NO INCENTIVE to be here.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

"You need to get at the EMPLOYER! Fine them so much that there is NO PROFIT in employing them. When there is NO MONEY, there is NO INCENTIVE to be here."



Exactly! I fear that the Business Lobby is putting the pressure on the Government to stop this from happening.

[nmh]

"But critics say the program overburdens local police officers and risks scaring off illegal immi grants who are victims or witnesses to a crime because they might fear deportation."

They shouldn't be here in the FIRST PLACE!

Yes, SCARE THEM OFF! Surely without their "witness" other criminals other than themselves, can still be convicted. ILLEGALS are CRIMINALS! They SHOULD be deported and MEXICO or where ever they are FROM - GIVEN THE BILL FOR DEPORTATION!

[RC2]

It has always amazed me how we are made to feel guilty for illegals coming into OUR country. This is crazy. Some say that we don't have enough people to patrol the borders. We have over 300 million people in this country with an unemployment of 4.5%. Lower the requirements for getting a job with Border Patrol. Have you ever looked at these requirements? You almost have to have a PHD.

[nmh]

"Exactly! I fear that the Business Lobby is putting the pressure on the Government to stop this from happening."

WHY in the world is this not happening?

If you're living in NJ ... as we do for now ... not a native from NJ ... this NEEDS to happen. LEGAL people are being squeezed out of jobs, start ups and exisiting companies. They can't compete with EXPLOITED, dirt cheap labor.

[nmh]

You really have to take away their reason for wanting to be here ILLEGALLY. Then and only then will this be less of a problem. They want $$$$$. You HAVE to get to the employer hiring the ILLEGALS - take away the PROFIT and he/she won't be hiring them.

[PhilCollins]

I live in Lake Co., IL, which borders Lake Michigan and Wisconsin. I heard the sheriff say that, when his deputies catch illegals and ask federal authorities to get them, for deportation, the deputies are told to release the illegals because deporting them is too much work.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

I whole heartedly agree! We must look out for the small businessmen in NJ. This is a great idea who's time has come.

[alice_in_bubbaland]

Another way to curb illegal immigration is to remove the law that states that a child born to illegals in the US are automatically a US citizen.

[pandoraou812]

Where I live they have not only taken over the jobs you mentioned but the construction jobs as well. My husband does tile and used to install pools. Now they are taking those jobs over too. They will work for under a hundred dollars a day and do almost anything. Homeowners know they are illegal but don't care because they think they are saving money. Wait until one gets hurt on a job and sues the builder & the homeowner. Then people will wise up. Maybe...

[nmh]

It's insane!

ILLEGALS KNOW THIS. It emboldens them. ILLEGALS are crawling all over NJ. I can't tell you how many times, I see a guy in the local post office, barely speaking English, (Spanish is his tongue) asking for a money order. As I mentioned they're taking over livelihoods of small business and start ups. We can't have this.

In our neighborhood we used to have garage sales. We no longer do because ILLEGALS are the ones that dominate the showing. They're cheap and their is animosity and hatred in their eyes as they view what YOU have and they don't. You can't ban them so we stopped having a neighborhood garage sales. Our development became very uneasy observing how they HATE us and wouldn't pay a fair price for articles for sale.

[gondramB]

>>Taking a harder line on illegal immigrants, Morristown is seeking to have its police officers deputized as federal immigration officers, making the community one of the first in the nation to undertake such an effort.

If accepted into a program run by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Morristown officers would gain the ability to check suspects' immigration status, charge them with civil immi gration violations and order them to appear in federal immigration court. Those duties are generally carried out by federal authorities<<

That's an interesting approach - so many other approaches are blocked by supreme court precedent that kept local communities from passing laws aimed at Germans and Japanese illegal aliens during WW2.

This was during a time frame when the supreme acknowledged the right of the federal government to impose "legal restrictions which curtail the civil rights of a single racial group." So its even less likely today that local laws like that would be allowed.

[infowarrior]

They can't compete with EXPLOITED, dirt cheap labor.

And *that*, in a nutshell, is the point. To drive down wages across the board, and to eliminate the middle class...

the infowarrior

[nmh]

"Where I live they have not only taken over the jobs you mentioned but the construction jobs as well. My husband does tile and used to install pools. Now they are taking those jobs over too. They will work for under a hundred dollars a day and do almost anything. Homeowners know they are illegal but don't care because they think they are saving money. Wait until one gets hurt on a job and sues the builder & the homeowner. Then people will wise up. Maybe..."

Oh, I know all about that ... here they typically front face it with a white guy and have your house crawling with ILLEGALS that can't understand English. They're really not saving money, shoddy work and enabling these people, may at some point push them out of their jobs. They're not just doing the manual labor jobs ... .

[nmh]

What they pay them is ridiculous!

This increases their HATRED of us. But they want the money. They'll do ANYTHING for money. Heck, helping out a terrorist to get stuff over the border is NOT beneath them if the CHEAP price is right.

Even stupid Bush ... says "illegals do the jobs Americans won't do". Even if that was true, which it IS NOT, that would put a chip on MY shoulder to be labeled in such a demeaning way.

[nmh]

BTW, can Corzine stop this?