Protest targets Morristown immigration enforcement

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15 years 1 month ago #1 by lioneltrainguy
Immigration Rights Groups Rally in Morristown
Friday, October 09, 2009 - Millennium Radio

Several immigrants' rights groups in Jersey are banding together and calling on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to not allow the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office, and police in Morristown to participate in a program that allows local police to become deputized - and make civil immigration arrests.

Shai Goldstein, the Executive Director of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network says the program - known as 287 G - should not go into effect in the Garden State "for the same reason that I don't want my local police department being trained as IRS agents - they're not qualified- and that's what the International Chiefs of Police have stated over and over again.

He says "our police have to be involved in combating crime - immigrants are less likely to commit crimes - it is a misuse and abuse of taxpayers money."

Goldstein has written a letter Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, urging her to at least postpone implementing the 287 program in Morristown and Monmouth County.

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Protest targets Morristown immigration enforcement
The Associated Press

Immigrant advocacy groups are urging Morristown officials not to participate in a federal program that allows local police to enforce immigration laws.

At a rally Thursday outside town hall, Shai (SHAY') Goldstein of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network said the 287(g) program has led to racial profiling elsewhere and is creating fear in Morristown's Latino community.

The Morristown Police Department is one of three New Jersey law enforcement agencies accepted into the program. It gives police authority to initiate deportation proceedings against illegal aliens linked to serious crimes.

Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello says it's a needed crime prevention tool.

It hasn't been implemented because the town's police union hasn't yet agreed to participate.

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