Hi Rich,
 
Thats strange to read your story; we were all over Lakewood yesterday,
and didn't see that many folks in the center of town protesting at all. We
spent time there, talking to folks and to the police officers who were
there as well...It was a rather small group there, all waving their
Mexican flags, and most were 'wearing' American flags on their heads,
shoulders and bottoms.
 
I met with American contractors who were there to support their
illegal day laborers as well. They were asking me where they could help
their illegal friends obtain mortgages! Very interesting day.
 
Have you ever taken into consideration that ALL IMMIGRANTS DO have
rights here in the USA? ALL LEGAL IMMIGRANTS THAT IS...And that
these Immigrants (legal) DO NOT have to protest and boycott in our
streets and town squares because they hold the same rights that you
and I hold?! Interesting how they cry out for rights, etc., saying that
they want all immigrants to have rights - when what they are saying
is not even true...For Legal Immigrants DO have rights -
 
They don't have to protest do they? All they have to do is enter our
gates legally - problem solved.
 
kindest regards,
Diane Reaves
  
Shore area immigrants join boycott

Some businesses close; students skip school
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/2/06
BY RICHARD QUINN
AND MICHELLE SAHN
STAFF WRITERS
As immigrants, illegal or otherwise, rallied during Monday's "Day Without Immigrants," the national firestorm over who is in this country washed over the Shore area.

Some businesses in Lakewood and Freehold closed to support the rally; others shuttered on the assumption workers would skip their jobs to attend protests in Freehold, Lakewood and Toms River. Day laborers stayed away from muster zones. School districts — particularly Lakewood and Long Branch — reported mass absences as students skipped school to support the nationwide movement.

"The Latino community is not just going to stand by and let the government oppress us," said Danny Jacobson, 18, of Jackson, who was born in Honduras. "We will unite as one. Make a statement. Make a stand against injustice."

The statement was made Monday in a series of loud but peaceful demonstrations across Monmouth and Ocean counties. The rallies — fea-turing chants, flag waving and, at one point, a congressional candidate wearing a sombrero and the Mexican flag — ended in a gathering outside the Toms River office of Rep. H. James Saxton, R-N.J.

Rumu DasGupta, one of the rally's organizers, hand-delivered a letter to two Saxton aides asking the congressman to reconsider his support of immigration reform that would tighten penalties for illegal immigrants. Saxton issued a general statement on immigration Monday but did not comment on the rally.

"We are making history," DasGupta told the estimated 400 people who crowded together in a dirt lot next to Saxton's office. "We are adding a new chapter to the civil rights history of this country."

The Shore wasn't the only flash point in Monday's rallies. In Camden, most bodegas were shuttered. In Bound Brook, traffic was noticeably less and in heavily Hispanic Perth Amboy, a normally bustling business district was quiet as block after block of restaurants, record shops, cafes and produce stores closed, leaving plenty of parking spaces on the usually traffic-choked street.

Police estimated 300,000 people marched through Chicago's business district. In the Los Angeles area, normally bustling restaurants and markets were dark as about one in three small businesses was closed downtown.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.