Message to locals is clear

Message to locals is clear:
Keep hands off immigrants

Freehold Borough officials have been saying for the better part of a decade that their hands are tied by the federal government when it comes to dealing with illegal immigrants to the United States who have taken up residence in the community.

The debate has gone back and forth over time as to whether borough officials were looking the other way at the problem and making claims about the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) that were not true.

It turns out, as one might expect, that borough officials were not telling tall tales in regard to what they can and cannot do in terms of removing illegal immigrants from the streets of the community.

This week, Kerry Gill, the public affairs officer of the Newark District of the INS, clearly laid out for the News Transcript the federal policy that governs local law enforcement and its relationship to illegal immigrants.

In response to the question, "What can local authorities do to remove undocumented immigrants from their respective towns? Gill said, "That is not work that is done by local police."

He said if undocumented immigrants happen to be standing on the street corner committing no infraction of the law, there is no legitimate reason for a local authority to make any contact with them at all.

The only time local law enforcement personnel may question a person about their immigration status is after they have been arrested for committing a felony.

Borough officials have been saying just that for some time.

Gill said the INS works on a priority basis. Heading the list for the last 10 months has been the agency’s anti-terrorism efforts. Is there anyone among us who would argue with this particular priority? Hardly.

To put it more bluntly, a representative of the federal government has made it clear that people who are living in the United States illegally, working at local businesses and not breaking the law will not be pursued — at least not now.

Manpower and resources are the reasons cited for this INS policy.

We can state things no more clearly than this: We do not support the right of people to be in the United States illegally. Our elected federal officials must review the policy that grants de facto clemency to people who have broken the law to come here. Residents should direct their views to federal officials — members of the House of Repre-sentatives, the Senate and the president — if they want to effect a change in policy.

With that said, we must also support the pragmatic approach Freehold Borough officials are taking as they seek to cope with issues of residential overcrowding in some areas where immigrants live, as well as other social issues associated with this new and growing population.

Those who oppose the mayor and Borough Council’s plan to address the matter can label the approach what they want, but the fact remains that once here, all residents of the community must be afforded an opportunity to live in safety. That responsibility is within the purview of local officials and appears to be on the front burner in Freehold Bor-ough.