Anonymous letters target Asians in New Jersey town

Ours is a nation of immigrants and our national fabric is woven from the rich and varied cultures of everyone who took the leap of faith to pursue the American dream

RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI, US congressman

WASHINGTON: Residents of Edison, New Jersey have received anonymous letters that seek to “deport” Indian American Falguni Patel and Chinese American Jerry Shi, who are running for the election to the board of education.

“Chinese School! I ndian School! Cricket Fields! Enough is Enough!” said the flyer. “Stop Jerry Shi & Falguni Patel from taking over our school board.” The word “deported” was stamped across their pictures.

The flyer was unsigned, but the headline gave away its sponsor’s politics: “Make Edison Great Again”, a play on US President Donald Trump’s slogan “make America great again”.

Though that cannot be proof it’s the work of anyone associated with Trump’s campaign or inspired by it, many people were only too willing to accept the obvious.

“Very pathetic and copycat tactic,” said an Indian American, who recently moved out of Edison and requested not to be identified unwilling to attract hostile reactions.

Patel was appalled.

“I was born and raised in New Jersey,” she told New Jersey 101.5, a local radio station. “To see the word ‘deport’ on my picture — where are you going to deport me to? Really, it’s just outrageous,” she said.

Edison, which is named after the inventor of the electric light bulb and phonograph Thomas Alva Edison who had his main laboratory here, has seen its demographics change drastically over the years, leaving whites, once an overwhelming majority, now clinging to a narrow majority of 44.10% of its nearly 100,000 people.

Asians are a close second at 43.19%, according to the 2010 census.