Class helps immigrants bridge cultural divides – Keyport, New Jersey

“While ordinances in many townships are being drafted to crack down on an ever-increasing undocumented immigrant population, officials and local volunteers in Keyport are looking for ways to better the lives of their towns immigrant community.

“It all started about two years ago,” said Margie Fischer, a Keyport Central School English as a Second Language ESL teacher and co-founder of the Keyport Cultural Harmony Program KCHP. “Keyport Police Detective Tom Mitchell, my husband, Tom [Fischer], and Federico Quezada from the El Mesias Church were trying to do something to help the non-English-speaking people because some of them were having problems understanding the laws. They were getting into trouble because they didnt understand, so we had an idea that instead of giving them regular community service for any kind of minor offense, we would mandate English classes for offenders”

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