At the same time, some 400 opponents of immigrant rights, many waving U.S. and Confederate flags, gathered across the street confronting the protesters. Facing few police restrictions, the rightists carried signs saying, “Riverside welcomes legal immigrants. All others are under arrest,” “Secure our borders. No amnesty. Enforce our immigration laws,” and “Scram!” They screamed “Go home!” and “USA,” taunting the supporters of immigrant rights.

Participants in the immigrant rights action came from Riverside and surrounding towns, as well as from Philadelphia.

Fausto Ullaguari, a 29-year-old Ecuadorian, has lived with his family in Riverside for five years. He said he hadn’t expected the big rightist turnout. “I think everybody should be legalized,” he said.

Patricia Garzón and her husband and children joined other families of Colombian and Salvadoran origin living in Vineland, New Jersey. “The unity we show here is important,” she said.

Two members of the Pennsylvania State Latino Coalition in Philadelphia came to the protest. They said they are working to organize a protest in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, for September 3 against a similar anti-immigrant law passed there earlier in July.

Alex Reeve, a student from Collingswood, Pennsylvania, and several of his friends, bought poster board and markers when they saw the hundreds of right-wing protesters and Confederate flags. “The South lost,” read one of the signs that Reeve carried. “It’s wrong to exclude a human being from a country,” he said.

The immigrant rights protest was organized by Rev. Miguel Rivera, the president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, and other religious and community figures in response to the “Illegal Immigration Relief Act,” which the Riverside Township Council passed July 26.

The law imposes fines starting at $1,000 for hiring an undocumented worker and for renting an apartment or house to anyone who cannot prove they are in the United States legally. It also makes it a crime to “aid and abet illegal aliens within the United States, not just within the township limits.” Many of the immigrants in this town of 8,000 are of Brazilian origin.

Following the rally, the immigrant rights protesters marched up the main street to St. Peter’s Catholic Church while racists ringed the building, cursing, spitting, and shouting, with some giving the Nazi salute.
 
 
Related articles:
Immigrant rights supporters build September 7 rally in Washington
Anti-immigrant bill defeated in Palm Bay, Florida  
 
 
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