Immigration Seminar Next Week

The Family Based Services Association of New Jersey will offer a free, Spanish-language seminar in the Borough next week on Immigration, Deportation, and Migration Reform.

Lawyers from the Garces & Grabler firm will offer information on documentation, immigrants' rights, and the different legal processes involved in immigrating, according to Tamara Gaines, the Assistant Director of FBSA.

http://www.garcesgrabler.com

The seminar will offer a general overview of the laws and application processes for immigrants in Monmouth County, with the bilingual law team available to meet with individuals after the seminar or set up appointments for further information later.

"We have a whole Latino community that has questions about documentation and their rights," Gaines said. "So we organized this and asked the lawyers to help explain it."

The groups hosted an earlier seminar on Wednesday in Long Branch. On Monday, the seminar will be held  at 17 Bannard Street, Suite 22, from 5:30-8PM.

Immigration advocates call for delay of program

Posted via APP.com:

Immigration advocates gathered Thursday to call for the delay of the controversial 287(g) program in Monmouth County and Morristown, and to discuss an upcoming national immigration reform gathering.

"Before a penny of taxpayers' dollars is wasted, before we continue with this failed policy, the secretary can stop it," said New Jersey Immigration Policy Network executive director Charles "Shai" Goldstein, referring to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

A handful of advocates held a brief news conference Thursday on the steps of the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office, which was accepted into the 287(g) program in July. The approval allows the sheriff's office to have officers stationed at the county jail deputized as immigration agents.

The meeting was a small one -- besides the advocates, the only other attendees were two reporters, a photographer and Freehold Police Chief Mitch Roth.

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A Libertarian’s View on Casa Freehold Rally

While traveling through Freehold last week I passed a group of people gathered with signs demanding immigration rights. I found a place to park and walked over to investigate. I found a group of about 35 people gathered with signs demanding rights for immigrants.The group consisted mostly of people from Casa Freehold and representatives from the NJ Immigration Policy Network.

The rights we enjoy as Americans belong to all humans. The right to freely travel provides humans with the ability to vote with their feet. If a regime (be it a country, state, or municipality) abuses the rights of its citizens, those citizens must be free to travel to another region. The right to freely contract for labor is an essential component of free and open markets. Free markets benefit all parties. Protectionism penalizes everyone.

Our current immigration policies are too complicated, too oppressive, and too restrictive. Immigration and Customs Enforcement locks up way too many people and disregards the rights of citizens and non citizens alike. Immigration control has been used as a pretext for National ID cards, financial surveillance of Americans, border and travel surveillance, and a growing police state.

I would encourage Casa Freehold to continue to speak up and fight for freedom. I do however warn them that they should not hitch their wagons to far left groups like the NJ Immigration Policy Network. During the rally Shai Goldstein, the executive director of this group spoke. While I agree with him on securing liberty for immigrants, his speech was full of errors and inconsistencies.

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Vigil aim: A halt to dividing families

Posted via APP.com:

Clergy, immigrant-rights advocates and other residents gathered in downtown Freehold Tuesday to encourage the passage of legislation that could help keep immigrant parents and their citizen children together.

"Families are being torn apart. . . . Children belong to their parents," said Marien Casillas of the immigrant worker group New Labor.

The crowd of about 40 people first gathered in front of the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office for a series of speeches and readings. They then proceeded to the Hall of Records plaza for a rally that ended with a candlelight vigil.

The Freehold vigil was one of 10 planned statewide by the New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant and Detainee Rights. The events were co-sponsored by several other religious and advocacy organizations, including Casa Freehold and Pax Christi Monmouth County.

Besides Freehold, vigils were scheduled in Keyport, Highland Park, Morristown, Bridgeton, Dumont, Hightstown, Jersey City, Montclair and Newark.

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Immigrant backers to hold vigils in Freehold, Keyport

Posted via APP.com:

People rallied against the detention of immigrants at the Middlesex County Jail in 2008.

From the APP:

An immigrant advocacy group plans to hold candlelight vigils in Freehold, Keyport and eight other towns in New Jersey Tuesday to support the rights of children who may be at risk of being separated from their families because of deportations or detentions.

The New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees says the vigils are intended to show support for children who live in households where at least one parent is undocumented or is a legal permanent resident.

Participants will call for an end to raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, detentions and deportations because they cause children to be separated from their families, the group said. It said some participants mat share stories of being separated from their families and may call for federal immigration legislation that prevents breaking up families.

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Report: Freehold cops’ tickets target Latinos

Posted via APP.com:

A report compiled by the Latino Leadership Alliance alledges that more Latinos receieve bicycle and taxi tickets than any other group in Freehold, according to a story in today's APP. The Freehold Police and Mayor Wilson have spoken out against the report, and we've reprinted the article in full below from APP.com, where a lively discussion can also be found.

--FREEHOLD-- KIM PREDHAM

Tempers are flaring this week over a controversial report claiming Latinos have been disproportionately ticketed for bicycle and taxi offenses in the borough.

"The report . . . is fraught with baseless allegations that are downright offensive to the Police, the Mayor and Council and the good people of Freehold," the mayor, Michael Wilson, and the Borough Council said in a scathing statement issued Wednesday.

The statement was in response to a report compiled by the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey's Monmouth County chapter, in conjunction with Casa Freehold and the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, detailing roughly a year of research into the traffic-stop patterns of Freehold police.

The agencies examined traffic and bicycle ordinance tickets issued at various points between August 2006 and this January. They plan to release their report Thursday.

Their findings show that Latinos received a significantly higher percentage of tickets for two types of offenses -- improper operation of a bicycle and driving an unlicensed taxi -- than their numbers in the borough population might warrant.

Those results have prompted the Latino advocacy groups to call for a review by the Monmouth County prosecutor of all bicycle and traffic tickets issued in the borough in the last five years to determine if biased policing exists.

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