Michael Wildes was recently featured at a forum at the Palisades Park Public Library that focused on New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigrant Policy. Also the Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, Michael Wildes is a member of the panel; a former federal prosecutor; and an immigration attorney/managing partner at the Immigration Law Offices of Wildes & Weinberg. Mayor Wildes and participants in the forum discussed their personal concerns with regard to recent affairs in Palisades Park (which is a well known muster zone for day laborers) and recent challenges facing neighboring communities and residents. Formal word on the Governor’s Panel’s recommedations await the Governor’s personal review and comments.
Palisades Park Police Sgt. Benjamin Ramos greeted Mayor Wildes with a formal letter authored by the mayor of Palisades Park and apprised Mayor Wildes and the audience of recent police activity in the region. Recent economic changes coupled with Congress’ inaction with regard to the implementation of much needed immigration reform (of its laws ) are having a negative impact not only on undocumented Bergen County residents but on their families and the communities in which they live.
The forum was sponsored by the Community of Friends in Action; Guatemaltecos Unidos para el Desarrollo; the Bergen County Branch, People’s Organization for Progress; the Anti-Racism Committee of the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood; Bergen Peace and Justice Coalition; First Friends/IRATE; and other organizations and featured over a hundred photographs taken that week of the nearly 1000 individuals that gather daily in ‘muster zones’ throughout Palisades Park, New Jersey.
PHOTO (left to right): Joe Kurz – Palisades Park Traffic Officer, Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes, and Sgt. Benjamin Ramos
To view the flyer for this event, please click here.