Cutting off your economic nose to spite your "illegal aliens" face

Riverside, New Jersey.

Business quickly dried up after the law against illegal immigrants. Last week, on what would usually be a busy Thursday afternoon, Ms. Guedes ate a salad and gave a friend a manicure, while the five black stylist chairs sat empty.

"Now I only have myself," said Ms. Guedes, 41, speaking a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese. "They all left. I also want to leave but it’s not possible because no one wants to buy my business."

Numerous storefronts on Scott Street are boarded up or are empty, with For Sale by Owner signs in the windows. Business is down by half at Luis Ordonez's River Dance Music Store, which sells Western Union wire transfers, cellphones and perfume. Next door, his restaurant, the Scott Street Family Cafe, which has a multiethnic menu in English, Spanish and Portuguese, was empty at lunchtime.

"I came here looking for an opportunity to open a business and I found it, and the people also needed the service," said Mr. Ordonez, who is from Ecuador. "It was crowded and everybody was trying to do their best to support their families."

Within a year or so, we'll probably be saying "Hazleton" and "Lewistown" in the same breath.

Andy in Harrisburg

NJ town comes to its senses, repeals anti-immigrant ordinance

Escondido, CA. Valley Park, MO. Farmers Branch, TX. Hazleton, PA. All towns that passed anti-immigrant ordinances, all towns that have lost in court either temporarily or permanently. Riverside, New Jersey, saw the writing on the wall. And after Hazleton was invoiced a legal bill of $2.4 million, the deterrent effect of that portion of the Civil Rights Act kicked in. There is a price for violating people's rights.

So Riverside repealed its anti-immigrant ordinance.

"I think the people realize it's the right thing to do at this time," (Mayor George) Conard said of repealing the law that put Riverside in the national spotlight last summer.

Riverside's decision drew praise from the ACLU.

"We commend Riverside for repealing this wrong-headed law," said Ed Barocas, Legal Director at the ACLU of New Jersey. "In addition to being illegal, the passage of this ordinance promoted distrust of immigrants - including those here legally - and fueled xenophobia and discrimination."
....
"Riverside properly recognized that trying to enforce this ordinance would be a waste of taxpayer money and a violation of the law," said Omar Jadwat, an attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. "Other cities considering similar ordinances should take note of this vote and the fact that these discriminatory and unlawful laws do not hold up in court. Rather than blow city resources on unlawful and mean-spirited ordinances, responsible officials should seek to combat discrimination and ensure that their municipalities are fair for all of their residents."

And The Philadelphia Inquirer chimed in on Friday.

The township cited a potentially costly court battle as a reason for ditching the law. But the bigger picture is that municipalities such as Riverside and Hazleton, Pa., which passed a similar ordinance, can't do the job that the federal government ought to be doing.

Congress is still shirking its responsibility to come up with an answer for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Lawmakers need to come up with a way to sanction the illegal immigrants already here but allow them an avenue to ultimate citizenship.

Gridlock on the problem in Washington has the practical effect of creating a national policy that pretends these undocumented people simply aren't here.

Andy in Harrisburg