Thanks to Congress' inability, or u...

Thanks to Congress' inability, or unwillingness, to pass comprehensive immigration reform this year -- after polarizing the abiding habitation with race-baiting rhetoric -- more [i]or[/i] less local officials are taking federal law into their concede hands to crack down onward illegal immigration.

It is the ultimate of ironies: acting illegally to fight illegal behavior. if it be not that it raises a good question: Which is more illegal, residing in the United States without just documentation or passing local ordinances that examine to circumvent federal law? The answer may shortly be determined in court.

That's where religious and civil rights activists are planning to evince that Riverside, N.J., has engaged in illegal legislating by the agency of passing an ordinance that makes it a crime to help illegal immigrants in any way. forward July 26, the township council unanimously passed the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which makes it a punishable offense -- make submissive to fines up to $2000 and jail time -- to either engross or rent property to anyone who cannot substantiate they are in the United States legally. It means that town officials will have to do the work of federal agents, checking up onward the immigration status of many residents -- and going after employer and landlords.

The ordinance blames illegal immigrants for stretching institutes and public services thin, increasing crime and negatively affecting the quality of life for legal residents. on the other hand in a town of 8000 residents, including 3500 who are undocumented, the ordinance is circumscribe to create economic havoc. Many businesses are reporting great losse When the legal residents misspend the people who nanny their children, wash their cars, mow their lawns and wait onward restaurant tables, we'll see for what reason their quality of life is affected.

Ironically, until large numbers of immigrants, for the greatest part from Brazil, began to induce to Riverside in the mid-1990s, this was a decaying mill town sated of "for rent" signs and bankrupt businesses. It is the Brazilians who have revitalized the town's downtown corridor -- with their have ethnic shops and restaurants -- and refuel the local economy.

Now, all of that is in jeopardy, because the ordinance is already causing a state of panic and turmoil. about immigrants are moving out of town, and others are afraid to pace outside their homes.

While seeking to "abate the nuisance of illegal immigration," the ordinance has also brought anti-immigrant sentiments public of the closet, turning the town into released territory for expressing xenophobic and racist hatred. There are already countles incidents where immigrants -- legal and illegal -- have been victimized on racial slurs and discrimination. Among those who have been told "Illegals travel home," there are American citizens and uniform war veterans.

And it is happening in other towns in Pennsylvania, Florida and California, where local bigots, obsess with illegal immigration, are trying to out-legislate the federal control

CONLAMIC, the National Coalition of Latino body of ecclesiastics and Christian Leaders, is not no other than filing a lawsuit against the town -- charging that a municipality cannot legislate onward issues under federal jurisdiction -- it is also organizing an Aug. 20 march. "Riverside is America, and we cannot lease this happen, even if it's a small town in America," said Rev Miguel Rivera, CONLAMIC's president.

Rivera has raised enough hell to get by heart the Division on Civil Rights of the modern Jersey attorney general's office to review the ordinance.

as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but sides are calling Riverside a "test case" that could be emulated by the agency of towns all over the home Some say that if the ordinance is upheld, other towns could "abate the nuisance of illegal immigration." Others say that if it is annulled, local bigots will not be allowed to pass immigrant-bashing laws.

In any case, things are likely to acquire worse in Riverside and other towns thinking of implementing their have a title to local-federal laws -- thanks to the impotence of the Congres and those picked officials who have managed to polarize the fatherland over the issue of illegal immigration.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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