Princeton Receives Hate Mail Over Immigrant ID Program

Last week the Times reported on a new program in Princeton and Trenton, NJ, where the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund began distributing community ID cards to any resident—even the illegal ones. With no other way of proving where they lived, many illegal immigrants have been finding the cards useful for doing everything from cashing checks to taking out library books. Of course, with the heightened national attention on immigration policy, the program has been getting its fair share of backlash.

Angry e-mails and phone calls have been pouring into the group's offices, accusing them of everything from giving illegal aliens favorable treatment to treason. One person wrote, “I cannot believe that your town is issuing cards to Illegals! It is a slap in the face to my relatives who had to wait to come here and to people who are currently waiting for Citizenship the correct way! These people broke our laws ... they should be punished and deported!" Another said, "I wish this country would treat illegals the same way Mexico does. Shame on you."

But despite the outrage, local law officials are actually in favor of the ID cards. Trenton Police Director Irving Bradley Jr. said they recognize the cards are not an official form of government ID, but may help illegal immigrants report dangerous crimes. He said in a statement, "We need the support of our entire community in order to combat crime...This is a small token in our effort to ensure that all crimes are reported and to make certain that those that are less fortunate are not being victimized and are not in fear of reporting crimes to the police."

Across the Hudson, where lawmakers have been getting arrested for protesting Arizona's immigration law, Mayor Bloomberg called the new policy "national suicide." He recalled times where the U.S. attempted to close its borders as disgraceful, but said, "fortunately, sanity prevailed."

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By Jaya Saxena in News on May 26, 2010 12:19 PM

Comments [rss]

Potty Boy

McLovin! "Muhammed is the most commonly used name on Earth. Read a fucking book for once." LOL

bashmentgirl

My parents are immigrants who came here legally. There's an old saying used to describe U.S. immigration law "if you're white, then you're alright. If you're brown, you stick around and if you're black they send you back." U.S. immigration policy has favored immigrants from western Europe for decades. Most illegal immigrants are not violent criminals. Actually, most are terribly exploited. Although it is not fair, I support giving illegals amnesty. Only then can we collect taxes from them. The more taxpayers the better. There's another saying "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face."

Clarice City

"U.S. immigration policy has favored immigrants from western Europe for decades. "

When? In 1850?

Absolutely not true. Read the Homeland Security immigration stats.

1,046,539 people were naturalized in 2008. Mexico leads the way with whopping 22.2%, followed by India at 6.3% and the Phillipines at 5.6%.

Mexico makes up for nearly a quarter of the total legal immigrants to the US. So, to say that Europeans are favored over any other nationality is complete and utter bullshit.

Guest

i don't know why, but this somehow reminds me of rusty getting a fake id as mr. pappagiorgio.

ps the real, actual, crazy and out-of-the-goddamn-mind criminals will stay the fuck away from getting these low-profile id cards. trust me.

republicanblack

This illegal immigration thing is getting out of hand. If we don't do something about it, we can sure kiss our country goodbye. I am not saying that I am against immigration but when illegals are committing crimes like shooting our citizens in cold blood we have to do something. I just came across an article about the execution style killing of univeristy students, now I hear that they were MS-13 gangsters that killed the students cause they were gay, check the story out

http://bit.ly/a4QECX

FDTW

Fact: 100% of violent crime is committed by illegal aliens

Fact: 100% of illegal aliens are violent criminals.

Fact: Once I saw a brown baby (definitely illegal) machine-gun 300,000 kittens and rainbows.

...

The cards aren't government ID, they just connect a face and an address. The group doesn't seek out illegals, they just issue to anyone who asks. If they commit a crime and are arrested, want to open a bank account, or drive a car, the card does NOTHING to help them. I don't see the harm in helping people, both legal and illegal, to check out library books.

ANGRYGOD11

Your stats are laughable. The correct figure is 375.9% of violent crime is committed by illegal aliens. Glen Beck knows because he wrote in on a chalkboard on TV.

Mordicai

FACT: you won that argument.

Mordicai

I heard they were treating illegal aliens like PEOPLE. Frankly that is APPALLING. Treating undocumented immigrants like human beings goes against everything yadda yadda yadda.

Caroline

The article states that they are giving out ID cards to "any resident", regardless of their immigration status. I don't see any indication that they're giving out cards to "only latin american illegals."

We have a similar program in New Haven, CT, except the ID cards are issued by the city. And I see nothing horrendous about giving all people access to the public libraries and the ability to open bank accounts. Heaven forbid those "illegals" try to get themselves some book-learnin'!

Boogie Down

I'm a foreigner who is here legally and it was mighty difficult to set up a bank account while using a passport, so I don't think some unofficial ID card will do the trick when it comes to opening an account at a financial institution. This country is so concerned with tracking funding to terrorist organizations that I still experience difficulties depositing checks from my home country in excess of $5,000, despite the fact that nobody from my country has committed an act of terrorism here, well, ever.

Clarice City

Why do only the Latin american illegals get this? No Haitians, Russians, Iranians or Chinese? Promoting one ethnicities' interests exclusively over those of others says ethnocentricsm to me. But these same people are always to first to equate border secuity and immigration reform that favors those who have patentienly waited for citizenship with "racisism". Interesting.

jaycjay

From the article above: "distributing community ID cards to any resident —even the illegal ones."

Because the program is being run by the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, it's presumably true that most of the clients for any of their services are Latino. But they're not discriminating in who can get these cards.

And, of course, any similar organization centered on serving any particular group of people could issue their own ID cards.

Clarice City

Of course they're "not discriminating" because then they risk losing their no profit status and funding. But, not making an effort to reach out to other groups? You bet they get away with it.

Anony-Mouse

I completely agree, as the child of immigrants who waited years for their citizenship I think it's horrendous that people are allowed to flout the system in this way. Why is it that people of Latin descent get special treatment, and those of other origins have such a hard time?

Clarice City

My own mother emigrated from Canada- Canada for crying out loud- and you wouldn't believe the bullshit she had to go through. I'm all for immigration reform, but handouts to anyone (of ANY creed or color) for breaking into the country illegally? Give me a fucking break.

A number of my friends from graduate school (one a gay iranan man, another a black guy from Toronto and a korean woman who has been here since age 16 and married an abusive american who she cannot divorce without risking her citizenship status) are DYING for a chance to work and live here too. What about them?