Simmering tensions over illegal immigrants were ratcheted up Aug. 20 in Riverside, N.J., as a rally protesting the passage of a recent township ordinance drew several hundred people and forced the closure of the town's main street.
About 200 people gathered in front of the Riverside Township Municipal Building to protest the law passed last month, which imposes penalties on anyone hiring or housing illegal immigrants.
On the other side of the intersection, behind police barriers, several hundred people waved signs and American flags and screamed epithets at the gathering.
"This can only lead to more separation, more hostility, more hatred, more anger," Marlene Lao-Collins, associate director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference, told the group in front of the municipal building. "As we have seen, this ordinance has already created hostility toward all immigrants, whether they are illegal or not."
Police closed off the town's main street to traffic. After the rally, they escorted the protesters down the street to a church, without incident.
Emotions ran high during the 90-minute rally. Several cars drove past waving Confederate flags and shouting, "Go home!" while in front of the municipal building, one person held up a sign that read, "We Are Home."
"They don't pay taxes, they don't pay nothing," fumed Bill Bernd, a roofer who said he has lived in Riverside for 40 years. "They're taking our work because they're underbidding us."
The ordinance seeks to punish landlords and employers who house or hire illegal immigrants. Local officials estimate that as many as 3,500 illegal immigrants, many from Brazil, live in the town. It is similar to one passed earlier in July in Hazleton, Pa., and comes as other towns around the nation are considering such actions.
Both the Riverside and Hazleton ordinances have been challenged in federal court. The challenge to the Riverside ordinance contends that the town is assuming powers that more rightfully rest with the federal government.
Local residents and township officials have said the law targets illegality, not immigrants.
"It's about fairness," said Frank Bury, 69, a retired teacher from Cinnaminson who attended Sunday's rally. "Say someone comes to your house uninvited - they don't belong there. But then they want you to feed them and send their kids to school."
A diametrically opposed view was offered by Camden City Council President Angel Fuentes, who addressed the crowd in front of the municipal building.
"You are contributors, you are taxpayers," Fuentes said, and compared the current landscape to the civil rights battles of the 1960s. "It could happen anywhere. It is an embarrassment to human beings."
Brian Lewis, a landscape contractor from nearby Delran, watched the scene from the sidewalk on the anti-protesters' side but sounded a note of dissent.
"It's hypocritical," Lewis said. "People are saying, 'They don't pay their taxes.' How many people who are in this country legally don't pay their taxes? I'm not saying we should let every person in, but at least give them a chance."