Donald Cresitello, mayor of Morristown, NJ, is a face of the growing fascist attack on undocumented workers. Two years ago, Cresitello hosted the anti-immigrant Pro-America group on the steps of city hall. The Party, many of its friends and even some townspeople, shut them down.

Several weeks ago, the American Friends Service Committee hosted a “Conversation with the Mayor on Section 287g,” the federal law which allows local cops to be deputized as ICE (immigration) agents. Cresitello, a Democrat running for reelection, has long advocated that Morristown cops act as immigration cops. At this event, he tried to pose as a liberal, proclaiming that he wasn’t anti-immigrant, that he supported providing undocumented immigrants with a “path to citizenship,”that there would never be racial profiling in Morristown. He even claimed not to “care”about section 287g.

One audience member pointed out that racial profiling and section 287g are inseparable. She also described Cresitello’s effort to promote anti-immigrant racism in Newark. There, after three college students were murdered by a suspected undocumented person, Cresitillo asked to speak at the memorial service. Knowing his anti-immigrant rhetoric, the family refused to let him come, and told him that his racist ideas were not welcome. The immigration status of the murderer was irrelevant.

Cresitello quickly exposed himself. He jumped to his feet to denounce the story as false, and threatened that the speaker had better not tell this story in public again. But his red face, bulging eyes, and yelling made it clear to the audience that he was the liar and the same racist he always had been. After the forum, a number of people in the audience came up and thanked the speaker for what she had said.

An important lesson was learned that day. We must never let these racists pretend to be something other than what they are. We must be sure to confront them whenever possible and make sure that we in the working class are not fooled by slick lies. And we must never forget that communist revolution is the only way to end capitalism and its racist exploitation of, and terror against, of undocumented workers.

N.J. Comrade