MANASQUAN — By Ron Bass' estimate, there were four dozen people waiting at the corner of Route 71 and Main Street in Manasquan. They all were waiting for a ride — not on the NJ Transit bus that stops there, nor on the train at the station one block up the street. They were waiting for a ride to work.
Aside from the group being all male, and that they were in a parking lot clearly marked in Spanish and English, "No congregarse/No traspasar" ("No loitering/No trespassing"), they had another trait in common, Bass said.
"Every one of them is an illegal alien," he alleged.
Bass, a 61-year-old resident of Elizabeth, is founder and president of Linden-based United Patriots of America, and was among six people representing a coalition of groups protesting illegal immigration in the borough Saturday. Holding signs such as "Don't hire illegals," "Secure our borders" and "Save Amer-ican jobs," they stood at a known gathering spot for illegal immigrants, objecting to what they say is a lax enforcement of immigration laws.
"We're here to send a message to fellow citizens and to elected officials that we will not accept nonenforcement of the laws of the United States," said Bass, adding his group plans to hold future protests on Saturdays at the same location in Manasquan, near borough hall.
Joining them were representatives from like-minded organizations such as New Jersey Citizens for Immigration Control, Carlstadt and New Jersey Minutemen.
While relations between the immigrants and the protesters were peaceful, without a word passing between them, some passing motorists yelled at the protesters. One of them asked UPA member Carmen Morales, 58, of Middlesex County, where her ancestors were from.
"That's not the point," said Morales, a citizen born to Puerto Rican parents. "Yes, we are all immigrants, but do they (the people waiting for work) have the right to cross the border illegally?"
"We're not looking to do anything other than educate people on how bad the problem is," said Ted Mechnick, 58, of Wall. "We're not looking for confrontation."
As well, "homeowners don't realize that if they hire someone who is not insured and that person gets hurt, they can go after your homeowner's policy," said Pat DeFilippis of Lakewood, a New Jersey Minutemen member who also runs a home-improvement company.
Mechnick, who runs a construction company in Lakewood, said hiring legal workers is not difficult as long as one is persistent.
"There are plenty of guys out of work today," he said. Mechnick said he took out a newspaper ad, and though it cost him $1,300, he found four people whom he hired.
"I'm (determined to get) all legal people," Mechnick said. "It all worked out."