New Jersey Jewish News
New Jersey Feature Story
AJC joins rally against House immigration bill
An icy wind cutting through the courtyard in front of the State House Annex in Trenton did little to chill the passions of the estimated 2,000 people who rallied for what they called comprehensive immigration reform.
“We are tired of living in the shadows of outdated
immigration policies,” cried out Carlos Avila, coordinator of ImmPACT — the Immigration Public Advocacy Coalition in Trenton, which organized the March 20 rally with the support of the NJ Immigration Policy Network.
The network is a coalition of groups that includes one Jewish organization on its masthead, the New Jersey region of the American Jewish Committee.
Rally-goers opposed a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives — now on a path to the Senate — that makes it a felony to hire or provide help to an undocumented person in any way. House Bill 4437 — the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act — was jointly sponsored by Republican Congressmen James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and Peter King of New York. It would also allow state and local police to enforce federal immigration law and require that a wall be built along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Even the title of the bill is an indication of where their heads were,” said Allyson Gall, AJC’s regional director, as she stood in the biting cold awaiting her turn among the roster of speakers.
“It’s unbelievable, this bill,” she said. “This particular bill is so bad, hopefully it will galvanize a lot of people who are not immigrants.”
Proponents of the legislation say the regulations will help combat terrorism. But rally leaders and participants were not buying that argument.
“We are tired of being scapegoated for terrorists,” Avila
told the demonstrators. “We are tired of being stepped on for the sake of luxury and commodity. We are also humans.…
“Many policies implemented in the last 40 years have been astute in marginalizing and stripping our value while at the same time exploiting our strength of labor,” he said. “Today, the name of injustice is the Sensenbrenner bill. And we are ready to stand up and say: Not in America.”
AJC, which joined the NJ Immigration Policy Network in January 2005, has been involved in the issue of immigration reform for many years, according to Gall. But since 9/11, she said, the issue has come to the fore. “What’s happened over the last two or three years is that it’s just getting hotter and hotter and hotter,” she said. “It’s coming to a head.”
The reasons for the Jewish community’s involvement in the issue are clear, Gall told the demonstrators. “When the human rights or civil rights of any group are threatened, we are all in danger,” she said. “We are all in the same world. We are all here in the United States, and we must together keep this country safe, strong, free, and a land of opportunity for all of us.… We Jews understand that almost all immigrants come to America for freedom or for economic opportunity, to make better lives for their children.”
Gall also laid out her organization’s plan for immigration reform.
“The American Jewish Committee is demanding comprehensive reform that will: one, protect the basic human rights of all; two, put those who are documented on a fast track to citizenship; and, three, bring the undocumented out of the shadows by giving them a way to legally work and legally drive in this country,” Gall said. “Immigrants have always been good for the United States. Let us not forget that.”
In an interview after his speech, Avila welcomed the support of the AJC. “First of all, it’s a privilege to work with the Jewish community,” he said. “We know the Jewish community is a very powerful community, and we want to follow along. We’ve had tremendous support from them…and we always appreciate it.”
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