Sunday, March 16, 2008

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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