ON IMMIGRATION IMPACT IN LOCAL TOWNS

ABOUT TIME

The New York Times has an article titled "Towns rethinking laws against illegal immigration" that's worth a read.  Here's an excerpt:

"A little more than a year ago, the (Riverside) Township Committee in this faded factory town became the first municipality in New Jersey to enact legislation penalizing anyone who employed or rented to an illegal immigrant.

Within months, hundreds, if not thousands, of recent immigrants from Brazil and other Latin American countries had fled. The noise, crowding and traffic that had accompanied their arrival over the past decade abated.

The law had worked. Perhaps, some said, too well.

With the departure of so many people, the local economy suffered. Hair salons, restaurants and corner shops that catered to the immigrants saw business plummet; several closed. Once-boarded-up storefronts downtown were boarded up again."

Money quote from the mayor here:

“I don’t think people knew there would be such an economic burden,” said Mayor George Conard, who voted for the original ordinance. “A lot of people did not look three years out.”

It's not just this town of Riverside, New Jersey that's had this experience, as the article goes on to explain:

"Muzaffar A. Chishti, director of the New York office of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit group, said Riverside’s decision to repeal its law — which was never enforced — was clearly influenced by the Hazleton ruling, and he predicted that other towns would follow suit.

“People in many towns are now weighing the social, economic and legal costs of pursuing these ordinances,” he said..."

"In the past two years, more than 30 towns nationwide have enacted laws intended to address problems attributed to illegal immigration, from overcrowded housing and schools to overextended police forces.

Most of those laws, like Riverside’s, called for fines and even jail sentences for people who knowingly rented apartments to illegal immigrants or who gave them jobs."

I've brought up the issue of immigration and our economic well-being as a nation for some time now, emphasizing that dealing with illegal immigration is not just a security issue.

Now that we're seeing some of the impact of our recent immigration policies and attitudes at the local level, it'll be interesting to see how much longer it'll be before we see it at the State and National level.

And start to do something really constructive about it, to bring the pendulum back to the middle.

Comments

[alex tolley]

Reading the full article, there appears to be more than a tinge of racism involved. Whilst there were illegals, it seems that there was an undercurrent of anti-foreigner sensibility too, regardless of status.

I wonder how much of this is reflected in the wider issue of immigration. The GOP likes to talk up tough law enforcement for illegals, while at the same time not causing upset to businesses that use cheap labor, especially for crop harvesting. But when you read about the racism, it makes you consider whether dealing with illegals is more a smokescreen for racism.