Framingham brothers crusade against illegal immigrants
By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press Writer | May 27, 2006

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. --Jim and Joe Rizoli can't go very far during a walk through downtown Framingham without pointing out something Brazilian.

There's the bakery where Brazilian immigrants wait to be picked up for their jobs as day laborers, a Brazilian store where the Rizolis claim illegal immigrants work, and then there's the area near Town Hall where thousands of Brazilians clogged up city streets after their national soccer team won the World Cup.

It's all in a day's work for the Rizoli brothers, who have developed a reputation in their hometown as the anti-immigration twins.

For Joe and Jim, immigration has become a passion. The 53-year-old identical twins have spent the past three years talking to anyone who will listen about the problems they believe stem from illegal immigrants: taking away jobs from Americans, collecting benefits they are not entitled to, and not paying taxes.

"The problem is they are just so demanding," said Jim. "They think they can come here and get whatever they want and that we have to give them everything."

"They are using this country," said Joe.

On their weekly local access cable TV show, "Illegal Immigration Chat," the Rizolis feature film footage of Brazilian businesses in Framingham and immigrants they believe are here illegally.

Joe, a bus driver, and Jim, owner of a carpet-cleaning business, also head Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement, a small group of people who write letters to the editor and speak out about immigration at local forums.

At a time when the debate over immigration has reached a fevered pitch in Washington, the Rizoli brothers have become local celebrities in Framingham, a town of about 67,000 about 20 miles west of Boston where an estimated 14,000 Brazilian immigrants live and the downtown is dominated by Brazilian-owned businesses.

The Rizolis can hardly walk down the street without someone recognizing them. But usually, the attention is not good.

"You guys are racists. You're criminal," Sidney Pires shouted at the brothers one recent afternoon as they stood on the sidewalk outside Padaria Brasil Bakery, a favorite target of the Rizolis on their cable show. Another man waved his hand dismissively at the brothers and spoke loudly in Portuguese at them.

The Rizolis say they are getting a bad rap. They're not against all immigrants, only illegal immigrants, they say.

"I love it when I see someone come here and become an American citizen," said Joe.

"But if you are going to break the law and be here illegally, we are going to fight you," added Jim.

Pires, who said he emigrated from Brazil 20 years ago and is now a U.S. citizen, said he is offended by the Rizolis' treatment of immigrants, particularly by a bylaw recently proposed by Jim Rizoli that would have barred illegal immigrants from opening food service businesses and prohibited restaurant owners from hiring illegal immigrants.

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Page 2 of 3 --Critics said Rizoli's proposal was redundant because employers are already prohibited from hiring illegal aliens under federal immigration laws. Rizoli's proposal would have required the local Board of Health to inspect restaurants for illegal immigrants and enforce the law.

"What he's looking for is to make any restaurant like an immigration office," Pires said. "He attacks the Brazilian people."

The proposal, which was rejected by Framingham's Town Meeting, prompted the chairman of the town's Board of Health to call Jim Rizoli a "hatemonger."

The Rizolis seem genuinely surprised by the level of resentment they get from some residents. But none of the flak they get deters them from speaking their minds.

"What's happened with the Brazilians is they've been handed a free rein in the town, no one has ever questioned them until now," said Jim, who has run unsuccessfully for selectman twice and is now a write-in candidate for state representative.

"The whole town is a scam," said Joe, waving his arms.

"We'd like to change the name of Framingham to Scam-ingham," added Jim.

Vera Dias-Freitas, a local businesswoman and community activist who emigrated from Brazil almost 20 years ago and is now a U.S. citizen, said she has been targeted by the brothers on their cable show.

"They went in front of my store with a camcorder and said I hide illegal immigrants in my basement. That is all lies," said Dias-Freitas, owner of Vera Jewelers.

"I started here when every other business was closed. There was prostitution and drugs up and down the street," she said.

Dias-Freitas said she and other Brazilian business owners helped revitalize downtown Framingham.

"Now, 15 years later, they come here and say we don't belong here -- give me a break," she said. "Truly, they are bigots and racists."

The Rizolis bristle at the racist label. Joe Rizoli said it's particularly ironic in his case because he makes his living driving a bus for Metco, the state program that buses inner-city children to suburban schools.

"I've been driving a Metro bus with black kids for 25 years, and I'm a racist? That's ridiculous," he said.

The Rizolis said they never thought about immigration growing up in Framingham in the 1950s and '60s, in a middle-class Italian family. The Rizolis' grandparents emigrated from Italy in the early 1900s. Their father, Primo Rizoli, was the town's building and wiring inspector. Their mother, Nancy, stayed at home to raise four children.

In the 1990s, Brazilians began arriving in Framingham in large numbers. Over the last five years, the town's Brazilian population has increased by about 30 percent, according to the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Boston. Framingham now has the largest Brazilian population in the state, with at least 14,000 and some estimates as high as 20,000. It is difficult to estimate how many are undocumented, said Fausto Da Rocha, executive director of the center.

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Page 3 of 3 --"People moved to Framingham in the past because it was less expensive to rent a house or apartment, and now people come because they have friends or relatives and they are part of a community," Da Rocha said.

Joe Rizoli said he never thought much about immigration until about 10 years ago, when a friend of his had a nasty court battle with a Brazilian woman who was the mother of his two children. Rizoli said the woman was undocumented, but was allowed to stay in the United States and collect government benefits because her children were born here and are U.S. citizens.

"She abused the system," he said. "This enraged me."

The Rizolis, both divorced, live together in the same house they grew up in. Joe, who wears a cap that says "U.S. Border Patrol," sometimes becomes agitated when talking about immigration. Jim is no less excitable about the issue. "Can I talk? Are you going to let me talk?" he says, frequently interrupting his brother to get his point across.

Both brothers insist that they have no complaints about legal immigrants.

They even expresses some pity for immigrants who are exploited by employers who hire them as cheap labor and require them to work long hours. But the sympathy ends there.

"We want the illegal immigration to stop," said Joe. "We have apartments here who have 20 or 30 people living in them. They are bringing their third world mentality up here. We have to think where are we headed as a country? Is this what we want?"

The Rizolis are not without their supporters. They say they are frequently stopped on the street by people who tell them they agree with their position on immigration.

Others in town say they have some good ideas, but may need to tone down their approach.

Town Selectman Ginger Esty said the Rizolis have been unfairly vilified. Esty, who also has some concerns about illegal immigration, said the brothers "have a sincere message," but may need to tone down their approach.

"They are not telling lies. They are just trying to call attention to a problem that is a nationwide problem," she said.

"Unfortunately, their delivery leaves something to be desired."

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