TRENTON, N.J.—The building-services union 32BJ SEIU has denounced New Jersey Republican gubernatorial
candidate Kim Guadagno as racist for a television ad accusing her opponent of supporting “criminal illegals.” “I work hard cleaning offices and have worked full time for several years,” Maximo Rodriquez, a Trenton-based 32BJ SEIU member, said in a statement. “What Kim Guadagno said about immigrants in her ‘sanctuary’ ad is wrong. We’re not criminals.” The ad alleges that Democratic candidate Phil Murphy’s support for making New Jersey a “sanctuary state” to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation means he “would have the backs of deranged murderers” like the Peruvian “illegal alien and child rapist” who killed three college students in Newark in 2007. “This ad is disgraceful,” said Kevin Brown, 32BJ’s New Jersey state director. “It accuses undocumented immigrants of being criminals, murderers and drug dealers. It’s from the Christie/Trump playbook: pitting ‘us’ against ‘them.’” The New Jersey Working Families Alliance accused Guadagno of “fanning the flames of racism” through the ad’s “attempt to dehumanize immigrants and cast them as violent criminals—because of the bad actions of one man.” Murphy said the ad “took an answer I gave about standing up for immigrant communities and knowingly distorted it.”
