By Jen Samuel, Managing Editor
HIGHTSTOWN — Fury and passion filled the atmosphere during opening public comments opposing a recent poll on illegal immigration at the Borough Council meeting Monday night.
Several Democrats called it a “push poll.”
Councilwoman Skye Gilmartin and former fire chief John Archer sponsored the poll, which they announced in a joint letter to the editor last week. Both Councilwoman Gilmartin and Mr. Archer are Republican candidates running for a 3-year seat on council.
Democrats Susan Bluth and Robert Thibault, a former councilman, are challenging the Republicans in the General Election November 8.
As previously reported in April, as Republican candidates for council, Mr. Archer and Councilwoman Gilmartin announced plans to create an exploratory team to address illegal immigration issues in Hightstown, including Resolution 2005-66.
The poll was a result of that exploratory committee, said Councilwoman Gilmartain at Monday’s meeting.
Several public speakers denounced the poll as bigotry, especially in terms of intolerance.
”When things are not going our way…we blame it on the others, the foreigners,” said Walter Sikorski, a former councilman and the current chairman of the Democratic Municipal Committee. “All of us at one time were foreigners. My grand father came to this country as an immigrant.”
”It’s an attack on immigrants,” said Frenchman Francois Laforge of Unidad Latina en Accion N.J.
”I am advocating…I read the letter,” Mr. Laforge said. “I was, like the two persons before me, appalled, by what I would call pure racism.”
He said the suggestions within the poll that immigrants caused crime flew in the face of the reality.
”It’s a big lie.”
As for crime, Chief of Police James Eufemia of the Hightstown Borough Police Department, discussed the biggest safety concerns face the town in an e-mail statement to the Herald sent Wednesday.
”There are numerous safety concerns faced by police officers every day; stopping motor vehicles, handling calls for service, directing traffic, and dealing with violent behavior, to name a few.”
He did not mention immigration.
Deborah MacMillan, president of the League of Women Voters of East Windsor-Hightstown, said she had received a call from the “robo-survey.”
”I applaud the attempt to learn more about Hightstown’s attitude…I feel I am coming at the issue from a very different way, and the survey came with an attitude rather than asking for responses in an unbiased fashion,” she said during public comment.
Furthermore, she noted, the poll was administrated to registered voters. However, once you’re on council, you’re representing not just votes, but all residents.”
Due to the nature of the public response found in public comment, Mayor Steve Kirson, a Democrat, gave council members a chance to respond.
Councilwoman Gilmartin expressed briefly that the poll was conducted with full transparency.
Councilwoman Isabel McGinty, a Democrat, said discussion of political campaigns was not appropriate conduct for council members during Borough Council meetings.
According to speakers who said they had heard the poll, voters were asked several “yes” or “no” questions. While some people did not like the nature of the poll on several levels, issues it discussed included federal immigration law, general town safety concerns, and the future of Resolution 2005-66.
While the 2005 resolution established a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy between law enforcement officers and the Hightstown immigrant population, national media giants, such as FOX News, labeled the town a “sanctuary city.”
However, Dr. David Abalos, a professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and Sociology at Seton Hall University explained at Monday night’s meeting that the history behind the term “sanctuary city” is derived from human beings seeking refuge from perilous conditions, including violence.
Mr. Abalos leads the Social Justice Group at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Hightstown.
