I love the happy little train sometimes.

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I think you are overreacting to the point Kitten was trying to make. Nope, I'm sure of it.

Peace.

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Please say you know not what you say. Please please. It's so bad and so ridiculous that I can't accept it as something you actually meant to say. No way.

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No, it's definitely not as easy as it seems. Read " A Year Without Made in China". It's a book about a family who resolves to go one year without buying stuff made in China. Not only is it extremely hard to just buy american made stuff, but just avoiding China is virtually impossible. An interesting read anyway.

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Care to share the buy American list that you make an effort to support? Not as easy as it seems?

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Heights,
I gotta say your stupidity astounds me, and I know some pretty dumb people. I hope that your continued references to "housing" under the guise of illegal jailings in Canada, concentration camps in Germany and internment camps in the US is some sort of retarded sarcasm. It is certainly not funny or witty. It's not dark comedy. It's just lunacy.

People need to make a conscious effort to buy American and use money to support American business.Too many goods are made in foreign countries and bought here.Similar effect when employing people here illegally over our own citizens.It was'nt too long ago relatively speaking that America was the great exporter.

OK lets hear it,why am I wrong?

And by the way there isn?t a bureau of Vital Statistics in Hudson County anymore due to the workers that used to work there because they were furnishing these illeagals with fake birth certificates. Now try getting a birth certificate if you were born in Hudson County. You have to either write or go all the way to Trenton N.J. our state capital for those that aren?t aware of that to obtain a birth certificate. Recently at the J.C. (DMV) N.J. Motor Vehicle Commission on the foot of Summit & Sip Avenues two workers were fired because they were issuing driver?s licenses to ?illegal foreign? immigrants.

The soccer games at North Hudson park on Bergenline Ave are awesome. Grab a water ice and watch some serious F?tbol.

I would rather get hit with a Soccer ball than a Baseball, JC should be more Soccer friendly...there is no soccer fields to play at in JC Heights

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I'm sorry you feel that way I too have friends that enjoy the sport of soccer. Riverview Fisk Park, which is up in the Heights section of J.C., has cylindrical fences to prevent constant soccer games throughout the park. It became a hindrance to others trying to use the park. The soccer games also created problems with the grounds being torn up, litter left behind, and drinking. The large mass of people were beginning to be burdensome on the quiet time in the park so the local residents and block association members had to step in and request some reprieve.

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Because of this reference does this negate using the Warsaw point, it wasn't meant for that, there were ghettos in many countries during WW II, Canada housed Italians, the U.S.A. housed Japanese, and Germany housed many different ethnic groups throughout Europe. Perhaps we Americans should keep better track of these "visitors" before others with less meaningful ways do more harm than good.

If playing soccer on the weekends and hanging out on the corner, desperately looking to work on weekdays is your biggest complaint then perhaps you should have a chat with some of our "native" Americans.

Heights,

Man am I ever glad I blew off going to that pub crawl on Friday. Being around a ignorant douchbag like you is not my cup of tea. Everyone in my family plays soccer. Better be careful if you come down my street or ya might get a ball to the nuts.

Yo heights-i think you may want to change the simile-the Warsaw Ghetto was full of Jewish Poles-Legal. Go read a textbook. And I am wholly offended that you are bringing some sort of twisted reference to the plight of the Jews in Warsaw that were exterminated by damn nazis to this. Or are you recommending extermination?

I remembered when immigrants stayed in their own corner of the universe kind of like the Warsaw Ghetto, now they are everywhere and tax free don't cha know. They live in squalor in illegal rooming houses, loiter around town sucking up public spaces. Try going to a park and not get hit by a soccer ball flying around. If you look at the crime statistics it will depict some ungrateful acts of treason. I think the one thread was right hassle the ones hiring them. Imagine a U.S.A. hiring it's own citizens first then maybe we'll find room for it's foreigners. But if one American is out of a job they (Americans) should get first dibs. Take care of family first...family first.

Listen Kitten-I was anticipating the usual losers, lunatics and grandmothers being up in arms over anti illegal immigrant statements, but you're off the wall. I am rarely scolded for not hating bleeding liberal heart agenda items enough. This isn't exactly a "chicken or the egg" argument though-if we kept the illegals out, no one would hire them.

That said, I don't know where you got the idea I was in favor of hiring them, or pro-contractors that hire them. It sounds to me like you've got enough hate in your heart for the contractors though-so that'll be your responsibility. I'm just tired. Peace.

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Why don't you get angry at the people who HIRE them? Aren't they the real problem??? Getting tons of labor for cheap. Not having to follow the rules. Not paying taxes, etc. The contractors who hire these guys are the problem.

Looks like its time to head back to Peru Pedro. The sad thing is none of these guys are going anywhere. They are still better off here then back home. They'll just accept the pay-cut from $240/week to $120. Big deal.

I know someone who learned their GC used illegal's to build their renovation. So much was wrong with it they are in a legal battle now. There isn't a lot of caring or ownership for work when you have zero accountability for the end result. Things were glued shut that shouldn't have been, wrong paint used for bathrooms, just nightmare things you'd never discover until a long window after the fact.

Let the free markets take care of the illegal immigaration problem. No need for fences and border guards. Although, Im sure obama will put some bogus pork in the next plan to give every illegal $80-$100 per day on top of the free medical coverage.

no matter what your stance is on immigration, this is another indicator of an economy headed rapidly downwards.

no jobs = no illegal immigrants coming here to look for work.

so, skepticalhook & co, you win!

how's that victory taste?

Guess what? You don't like it - go home. Or better yet, go complain with Bernard Madoff's "victims." Enough with this already. Stop draining the TAX PAYERS of this state and country.

Stop enabling. They should go back to where they came - drains on society - even when they can earn a living, they're not paying taxes but taking every free service state and federal governments offer.

And everybody's gotta be so friggin politically correct. When did ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT become "undocumented immigrant day laborer"!? Rediculous.

WAITING FOR WORK
Hudson day laborers find it tougher to find any kind of job

Monday, March 16, 2009
By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

UNION CITY - Each morning, Pedro, a 32-year-old undocumented immigrant from Peru, walks to Summit Avenue near Seventh Street and waits for a contractor to offer work. He has been finding work as a day laborer for two years, but over the last few months, his wait, often in frigid weather, has gone for naught.

"In this economy it is very hard," said Pedro, who like the others interviewed spoke only in Spanish and did not want to share his last name. "There used to be a lot of work, but now there is nothing. We don't have money to buy food."

Scores of other day laborers who gather here find themselves in the same boat. The temporary jobs as painter, laborer, and landscaper that allowed them to eke out a living have simply dried up, they said.

And, because of layoffs, the ranks of day laborers are swelling.

"There used to be 15 to 20 men out here waiting to get picked up," said Jose, 50, a Union City resident by way of El Salvador. "That was 10, 20 years ago. Now there are one hundred every day, at least.

"I used to work five days a week - sometimes seven," said Jose, waiting on a recent weekday in a strip mall parking lot at the corner of Fourth Street and Summit Avenue on the Union City-Jersey City border. "This week I haven't worked one day."

For Jose and the dozens of others still waiting for work at 11 a.m., a good week is when they get picked up three days, when they each can make somewhere between $240 and $300. "Some weeks I just work one day."

And when they do find work, there's no guarantee they'll get paid.

"Sometimes a man will not pay me because he tells me he is picking me up the next day," said Jesus, 29, also waiting for work. "And then the next day the man never comes. You never see him again."

Still, there are dozens of men along Summit Avenue from Fourth Street to Eighth Street every morning, staying as long as it takes to get picked up each day. "Eight or nine hours I wait," said Emanuel, his face wrinkled and weather-beaten beyond the 27 years he claims as his age. "Then I go home."

It helps if you speak English, said Jose, who admitted the scrum among willing workers gets heated sometimes when a pickup truck pulls up looking for a few strong men.

"We fight, but we really don't fight," he said. "The man, he makes us all stand there and he picks some."

To survive, the day laborers accept food from local churches, sleeping in shelters, and cramming five people into rooms designed for two, said Blanca Molina, director and president of the Union City-based immigrant advocacy group, the Committee in Union for Salvadorians.

"If I don't work and I have no money," said Jose, "then I borrow."
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Not enough help for immigrant laborers

Monday, March 16, 2009

For undocumented immigrant day laborers who go days and weeks without working, people like 25-year-old Oneyda Artiles are a godsend.

Artiles, a Union City homemaker and member of the Iglesia Del Avivamiento on 19th Street, brings them bread, pastries and coffee a couple of times a week.
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Diana Mejia, a coordinator for American Friends Service Committee, said her organization tries to help day laborers deal with legal problems they face, such as harassment and not getting paid for the work they do.

The day laborers interviewed said they've never been bothered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. They said Union City officials have not reached out to help them; nor have they tried to stop them from trying to find work.

Blanca Molina, who volunteered to help day laborers during the 1990s, is also struggling to keep her center open.

"It is very difficult to get money for this kind of project, especially for day laborers," Molina said. "Not many people are sympathetic."

CHARLES HACK