Maria Juega stood proudly on the front steps of the Nassau Presbyterian Church last weekend, microphone in hand, as 40 students, professors and community members gathered in front of the church's tall white pillars.
"We're here to tell our immigrant friends that you're welcome here, and we want you to stay," Juega told the crowd.
The group had gathered to witness a step forward for Latinos in Princeton: that day, the basement of the Presbyterian Church became home to the single office of Juega's two-year-old Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund (LALDEF), which provides immigrants with information and legal referrals.
But only a handful of Latino immigrants ventured out for the rally — partly, Juega said, because many were fearful of revealing their undocumented status.
Two years after federal immigration raids forcefully exposed the often hidden Princeton Latino community, recent activism has revealed a group that has largely come into its own. But interviews with more than a dozen immigrants, professors and activists demonstrate lingering problems with integration, affordable housing and employee benefits that continue to plague the community.
And for the 25 to 50 percent of the population that Juega estimates is undocumented, deportation is still very much a threat.
Homegrown activism
Against a backdrop of heated negotiations on Capitol Hill and with President Bush preparing to speak to the nation today about the issue, the rally was one of many recent community events supporting immigrants' rights.
But even as national groups have galvanized hundreds of thousands of people to march on the National Mall, protests in Princeton remain relatively quiet.
On May 1, members of the Princeton Latino community demonstrated their solidarity for International Labor Day and the national "A Day without an Immigrant" boycott by staying home from work.
Olga Carillo, who emigrated from Guatemala City in 1991, said she boycotted her cleaning job in the morning and did not make any purchases that day. That night, however, she went to work at Cloister Inn. Terrace Club was the only eating club to give its workers the afternoon off.
Though protests on campus were minimal, local businesses felt the impact of the boycott by Latino workers, attorney and former Borough councilman Ryan Lilienthal said. As immigrants' rights groups begin to raise their voices, he said, Princeton Borough can witness how much the Latino community has grown in recent decades.
Latino immigration to Mercer County began in the 1980s, according to a 1999 study by sociology professor Miguel Centeno. Guatemala and Mexico were the most common points of origin because of family networks and shared migration experiences.
Borough Councilman Roger Martindell estimated that between 5 and 10 percent of current residents in the Borough are Latino, though the population is hard to measure because many undocumented immigrants are not likely to report their residence.
While immigration in the 1980s was dominated by Guatemalans, recent immigrants increasingly hail from Mexico, other Central American countries and South America. Though the community is mixed in age and marital status, the highest percentage of the population are working-age males.
"It's becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous to migrate," Martindell said. "Young males are more able and apt to take that risk."
Immigration raids
Though Latinos have immigrated to the region for more than 20 years, their presence often goes unnoticed, at least until there's a raid.
On April 21, federal agents arrested 30 undocumented employees of IFCO Systems in a Burlington plant, about 30 miles from campus. The arrests were among 1,187 nationwide, part of the Bush administration's strategy to deter employers from hiring illegal immigrants.
"The raids really sent shock waves through the community instantaneously. Latinos were afraid to go to work, afraid to come out of their houses," Lilienthal said. "True paranoia totally outpaced the reality of what was going on."
The shock produced by the Burlington raids reminded many Princeton Latinos of events in October 2004 that were much closer to home.
That month, federal authorities from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided an apartment building on Witherspoon Street looking for one undocumented worker with criminal status. In the process, they arrested eight immigrants. After being detained in Elizabeth, most were deported to Guatemala.
Shortly after the raid, Juega organized a march and rally to demand immigration reform. With the help of community members and University professors, she started LALDEF as a grassroots, volunteer group to support Latinos.
Though Princeton Borough police expressed support for the rally, Chief Anthony Federico said the police had a "perception problem" after the raids occurred.
"There was a misconception that we had been involved in the raid," Federico said, adding that the federal agents yelled "police" when raiding the building. "We had to do quite a bit of meeting with people to ensure them [otherwise]."
Federico said that the local community's distrust of local police has persisted.
"What we've found is that there has been an increase in victims of crimes that have been members of the Latino community," he said. Undocumented immigrants become easy targets for robberies because many believe they cannot open bank accounts and thus carry large amounts of cash.
"They fail to report the crime because they're afraid of their illegal status or of the police in general because of biases they come with from their countries of origin," he added, noting that the only time the police would get involved with an immigrant's illegal status would be during a violent offense.
A few months ago, Frederico met with a group of Latino representatives to discuss ways to engender trust within the community. One recent effort called Independencia is an information campaign aimed at telling immigrants how to open bank accounts.
Community tensions
Besides their conflicted relationship with the police, many Latinos have noted tensions between their community and the African-American community in Princeton's John Witherspoon neighborhood.
Most conflicts have risen out of competition for housing and issues pertaining to overcrowding, such as too much garbage on the street or noise complaints at night.
"[The African Americans] are people whose families have been in Princeton for generations and have developed a nice middle-class neighborhood," Lilienthal said. "So I think there are a lot of concerns the African Americans have about new people and any changes new people might bring."
A year and a half ago, African Americans from Trenton perpetrated several violent crimes against Latinos, sparking fear within the Latino community.
Juega said the tension between the two communities has eased in recent months. She said the African-American community has come to realize that the immigrant population shares a past experience of oppression.
"They are very hardworking individuals who are not here to do any harm but to earn their place in the community," Juega said. "If they are undocumented it is not for any lack of effort or willingness on their part, but [because] the system denied [them] that opportunity."
Martindell also has witnessed tensions between landlords and immigrant tenants over house prices and health standards. He said that some landlords "take a really dumpy house and rent it at a very high price, knowing full well that nobody will rent it, except someone in a packet of 15 people."
Such conditions lead to disease, he said, citing a recent case of tuberculosis.
Frictions also arise between employers and undocumented Latinos when the worker fails to meet expectations or when businesses ignore minimum wage or overtime requirements. Immigrants have also cited employers who violate the workers' compensation law by not covering insurance or injury costs.
"People come here to work, they [don't] want benefits" said Gladys Marin, a Terrace Club worker who emigrated from Honduras in 1989. More healthcare benefits, however, would alleviate the financial problems many immigrants face if they need to be hospitalized and are forced to pay outright without insurance.
Fredy Estrada, who has worked for 10 years as the translating coordinator at the outpatient clinic at the University Medical Center at Princeton (UMCP), said about 50 percent of their patients are Latino.
"They will receive the same treatment that the best insurance would carry," he said. "The hospital in that case is doing magnificent work." Estrada said that many Latinos receive better services than he does with his insurance, adding that UMPC may go beyond other hospitals in providing these services.
Estrada moved to Princeton from Guatemala 15 years ago to escape the civil war and raise his family in peace. But for Estrada, who holds an economics degree and had served as a pilot, the opportunities available to him in the United States represented a step down.
"We came ... to start all over again from the bottom. That's a very difficult situation," he said. "Thank God, [by] working hard we have been climbing again to gain our status. That's why I love this country — if you work hard you can achieve your goal."
Integration
Immigration rights advocates believe that a number of factors have blocked Latinos from fully integrating into the Princeton community: strict and outdated immigration laws, self-segregation, hostility from the majority community and the concentration of affordable housing in prescribed areas.
Lilienthal said that the U.S. legal system is primarily to blame. In December, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would criminalize undocumented immigrants and those who help them and also build a 700-mile security wall along the Mexican border. The Senate will discuss a compromise bill today that includes enhanced border security, a guest-worker program and a possible road to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants nationwide.
"If we honestly address these issues — our broken immigration system — and provide a legal vehicle for many immigrants to enter the United States and for many here to gain legal status, we can talk about integrating people," Lilienthal said. "It's very difficult to adapt immigrants to the American way of life when you don't admit they're here."
On the other hand, Princeton resident Maria Morena noted that many Latinos remain segregated in the John Witherspoon area because they are comfortable there.
"There are a lot of people against Hispanics coming into the U.S. in this area," said Morena, who emigrated from Mexico City six years ago.
"[Latino people] feel comfortable around people who speak Spanish, and on the other hand, they are not accepted by the American people as regular people, just the people who work in the garbage or as a nanny," she said.
Morena moved to Princeton after experiencing racial prejudices she experienced when working as an international exchange teacher for a year in Pennsville, N.J.
"The community didn't accept me, they said if they needed someone to speak Spanish, why didn't they bring someone from Spain and not Mexico," she said.
Estrada said many workers are forced to live in Princeton close to the homes and businesses where they work, both because public transportation is insufficient and because many illegal immigrants cannot obtain a driver's license. If the community is not willing to increase the supply of local affordable housing, he said they should add buses to routes.
Princeton public schools, on the other hand, have long supported community integration efforts. In 1986, the schools debuted bilingual education programs and English as a second language classes.
Princeton public schools have done "commendable work" helping Latino children to assimilate into mainstream life, Juega said. "No system is perfect, and there are some areas that still need to be worked on," she added, noting the endemic achievement gap between the majority and minority population in Princeton as well as across the country.
But as immigration continues and the immigrants' presence becomes more pronounced, full integration is inevitable.
"The record shows every single immigrant community in the U.S. has been integrated," Centeno said. "There's absolutely no historical evidence to believe that the Latino community will not be integrated."
In Wednesday's paper: How are students connecting to the burgeoning Latino community?
Read More
Department of Defense to stop funding active-duty graduate sponsorship at Princeton
Nico David-Fox and Devon RudolphSecretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ’03 announced that the U.S. Department of Defense will end sponsorship of active-duty military students in graduate programs at Princeton University and other Ivy League institutions beginning in the 2026–27 academic year.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ’03 announced that the U.S. Department of Defense will end sponsorship of active-duty military students in graduate programs at Princeton University and other Ivy League institutions beginning in the 2026–27 academic year.
‘No threat to campus’ after identification of anonymous individual behind post referencing ‘school violence’
Luke Grippo and Nico David-FoxContent Warning: This article contains references to violence and school shootings.
Content Warning: This article contains references to violence and school shootings.
Community members gather to celebrate contributions to NASA’s IMAP space mission
Zihan (Frank) XuOn Thursday, Princeton University celebrated its leading role in NASA’s IMAP mission, highlighting how faculty and students are collaborating to study the boundary of our solar system and improve space weather prediction.
On Thursday, Princeton University celebrated its leading role in NASA’s IMAP mission, highlighting how faculty and students are collaborating to study the boundary of our solar system and improve space weather prediction.