"May I see your papers, please?"

Once upon a time, not very long ago, hearing that phrase uttered by someone on a movie screen was a strong cue who the good guys and bad guys were. And you would certainly be rooting for the poor schlub in the battered shoes rooting around in a torn bag for the magical documents that would keep him and his family out of jail or the camps or worse.

Today, not so much.

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Some immigration news from New Jersey

Given the recent attention to immigration issues brought on by the unfortunate robo-calls from the Stith campaign, i though this little news item was worth sharing.

From the ACLU:

The American Civil Liberties Union praised Riverside’s (New Jersey) township council vote tonight to repeal an unlawful ordinance that would have punished landlords and employers for renting to or employing individuals it classified as “illegal” immigrants. Tonight’s vote was prompted by a lawsuit brought by a coalition of residents, businesses and landlords represented by the ACLU, the ACLU of New Jersey, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the People For the American Way Foundation, and the law firm of Ragonese, Albano & Viola.

The ACLU has challenged a number of anti-immigrant ordinances in court, including those passed in Hazleton, PA; Escondido, CA; Valley Park, MO; and Farmers Branch, TX. Courts have ruled against each of these ordinances on a temporary or permanent basis. The Riverside ordinance is the first of the challenged anti-immigrant ordinances to be fully repealed by a government body vote in advance of a court ruling.

Let's take a deep breath and really think this through before we go jumping into the deep end, shall we? There's a lot of folks who have moved to Durham recently. But that doesn't mean we need to be frightened into turning our town into something it has never been.

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