November 03, 2007

Ayuda Business Coalition selling Virginia on profiting from illegal immigration

Virginia is holding elections on Tuesday, and a group called Ayuda Business Coalition will be running local ads on CNN which will in effect attempt to sell Virginians into supporting illegal activity:

The centerpiece is an ad that claims to show what happened when Riverside, N.J., passed a resolution penalizing employers who had hired illegal immigrants. Images of empty buildings and signs of shop liquidations and closures flash across the screen. The ad explains that Riverside rescinded its measure one year later.

"The moral: Virginia, let's be careful what we wish for," a narrator warns.

In other words: support illegal activity, and profit. Members mentioned include Mariano Claudio, their executive director Mauricio Vivero. Other members include the head of the Salvadoran American Chamber of Commerce and Carlos Castro, the owner of Todos Market. This may be the same group mentioned in Pamela Constable/WaPo on Latinos who lose money when laws enforced.

As for Riverside, see Ken Belson/Jill Capuzzo/NYT: corruption, illegal activity are great! Since I have no first-hand knowledge I can't definitively say that the New York Times was overselling the impact of that town's ordinance, I just highly suspect it.

While there's probably little payoff, it might be helpful if someone in Virginia could forward the ad to someone else in Riverside to see whether they've taken any "creative license" with their choice of storefronts and the like.

Posted to Immigration2007b at November 3, 2007 09:28 AM