Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing

Not just a hot topic for presidential candidates, immigration significantly impacts local communities in New Jersey. Immigration reform has grabbed much attention, but also has generated misconceptions, making it difficult to separate myth from fact.

Learn more about the social, economic, and moral implications of immigration in our communities. Patricia Fernandez Kelly, PhD, Princeton University sociology professor and chair of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF), and Maria Juega, LALDEF trustee, will speak on Friday, April 18, at 6:30 pm, at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing, 268 Washington Crossing-Pennington Road, in Titusville, N.J. They will be joined by Robert Ashbaugh and Robert Duncan of the Nassau Street Presbyterian Church’s Immigration Reform Advocacy Committee. The event is free and open to the public.

Since 2000, the immigrant population in Trenton has increased 30 percent. With a surge of immigration in the last decade, an estimated 20 percent of New Jersey’s 8.7 million residents are foreign born, The New York Times reported last month. The 2006 U.S. Census estimates that 120,000 Latin American immigrants reside in the three counties surrounding Princeton and nearly half may be undocumented. Undocumented residents and legal permanent residents are integrated, with most households having at least one family member without legal status. Some immigrants have lived here more than a decade, raising families, buying homes and starting businesses in our state.

Yet immigrants are frequently targets of civil rights violations and crime that go unreported for fear of harassment, deportation, or lack of knowledge about channels for redress. LALDEF was established in 2004, working “to defend and promote civil rights, and increase access to education, among Latin Americans in the Greater Princeton area.” One of their long-term objectives is to “Increase the availability of affordable legal services and resources to prevent loss of legal immigration status among Latino immigrants, to help those without status adjust their situation, and to assist legal permanent residents become full-fledged members of our society by acquiring U.S. citizenship.”
The organization assists with referrals to legal assistance and social service resources, English classes, and tax returns. LALDEF also advocates for immigrants in local incidents with police, the housing authority, employers, and landlords, and mediates between targeted immigrants and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Nationally, immigrant workers comprise 12 percent of the U.S. labor force. Their net benefit to the U.S. is nearly $10 billion annually, according to The Center for Labor Market Studies data prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor.