By RICHARD PEARSALL
Courier-Post Staff

Morristown Mayor Donald Cresitello brought his campaign for the U.S. Senate to South Jersey Thursday, contending that he, not Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J.,is the best Democrat to challenge incumbent Frank Lautenberg.

"Rob Andrews is not known in the north at all," Cresitello said. "He has a great disadvantage."

The North Jersey mayor, who made headlines last year by pressing for local enforcement of immigration law, clarified his position on that and other issues in an interview with the Editorial Board of the Courier-Post.

The six candidates for U.S. Senate have been invited to speak before the Editorial Board. Cresitello was the third to appear. Andrews and Republican candidate Dick Zimmer appeared earlier.

"If the state enforced existing labor law, you wouldn't have an illegal immigration problem," Cresitello said.

But in what he called the absence of either state or federal enforcement, he said that local police officers should have the authority to check on immigration status and enforce the law that prohibits employers from hiring undocumented workers.

Under his plan, he said, workers here illegally would not be granted amnesty, but they would be allowed to work here while applying, through their home country, for citizenship.

READ MORE: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008805160376

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