VFW pulls permission for immigration meeting
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — A group that wants the government to enforce the nation’s immigration laws was unable to hold a meeting in the township.

Several days before a meeting sponsored by the United Patriots of America (UPA) was scheduled to be held at the Veterans of Foreign War post, Waterworks Road, the group was denied the use of the building.

The meeting had been scheduled for the afternoon of April 3. When people showed up at the VFW post, they were directed to a location outside of Monmouth County.

After news of the UPA’s planned meeting in Freehold Township became public last week, efforts began through e-mail notification asking people from around the county to call the VFW and ask the organization not to rent its facilities to the group.

Ed Pajor, who is the VFW’s house chairman, said on Friday that the organization had decided to withdraw permission for the UPA to use its hall. He declined to make any other comment about the issue.

Meanwhile, officials with the UPA answered what they believe was unwarranted criticism of the group made by people who were quoted in a March 30 News Transcript story.

According to Ron Bass, of Linden, who is a member of the group, the UPA has one goal in mind — to secure the borders of America as part of what Bass referred to as a homeland security issue.

“We’d like to see the immigration laws of our country enforced. Currently they are not. That is our mission,” he said.

Several people quoted in the March 30 article referred to the UPA as a radical group. Bass said that “all the statements made ... in the article were innuendo and nuances.”

“There were no facts, no explanation to support the statements. They did not articulate their concerns at all,” he said.

Bass said members of UPA are working with a representative from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). He said FAIR sent out an e-mail to announce the meeting of the UPA in Freehold Township.

Frank Argote-Freyre said members of two groups — the Latino Leadership Alliance and the Coalition for the Empowerment of Latinos and the Working Poor — were planning to protest the meeting at the VFW hall. He called the UPA an “anti-immigrant” group.

Issues related to illegal immigration were expected to have been discussed at the April 3 meeting.

“The UPA knows that the Freehold community has been struggling with this issue and this group is playing on their fears,” Argote-Freyre said.

He commended VFW officials for refusing to rent their hall to the UPA and members of the Freehold Borough civic group Pressing Elected Officials to Protect our Living Environment (PEOPLE) for not supporting the UPA.

Susan Tully, a representative of FAIR, said many immigration reform groups, including the UPA, have been labeled as hate groups or anti-immigrant groups.

“That is simply not true,” Tully said.

She said FAIR is working with UPA members in an effort to help them start a new state group to engage in legitimate discussions about what she termed “runaway immigration in this country.”

“People who hold prayer vigils and protests where these meetings are held are keeping these discussions from taking place,” she said.

Tully said Americans must be able to discuss the issue of illegal immigration.

“When the other side [illegal immigration advocacy groups] shows up at these meetings, full of emotion, meetings are canceled and this effectively shuts down dialogue before anyone has a chance to talk about the issues. We will not find a solution until we can talk about this,” Tully said.

Tully called Bass a “concerned, hard-working, backbone-of-America man.”

People entering the country for economic reasons are not FAIR’s only concern, she said.

“If you can sneak over 13 million people into this country without anyone noticing, you can certainly sneak in weapons of mass destruction as well. Mass illegal immigration has allowed terrorists to hide in this wave,” Tully said, adding research indicates that between 80 and 90 percent of Americans say this wave must stop.