Santa Claus to coming to your area of Weehawken Thursday
This Thursday, Dec. 20, Santa Claus and the Parks Department are teaming up to visit every good little boy and girl in Weehawken. Santa and his sleigh will be escorted around town by the Parks Department and his Elves to visit every child who wishes to come outside and say hello. Santa will start his tour at The Brownstones (Carlyle Ct./ Regency Place) at 6 p.m. and will make his way through the town as follows: Riva Pointe at Lincoln Harbor between 6:15 pm – 6:30 pm, Downtown between 6:30 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., the Heights between 7:15 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Uptown between 8 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.
Listen by your windows, boys and girls. When you hear the Christmas music and sirens, come out and say hello to Santa!
Correction
In the Sunday, Dec. 9 issue of The Weehawken Reporter, the article entitled “Hawk! The Herald Angels Sing!” erroneously identified Neil DeCosmis, who lives on El Dorado Place, as a Weehawken police officer. In fact, DeCosmis is a doctor. He has relatives who live elsewhere who serve on the police force.
b>Post-Christmas council meeting rescheduled for Dec. 20
The Weehawken Township Council meeting which was scheduled to be held on Dec. 27 will now take place on Thursday, Dec. 20 at 8 p.m. in the second floor council chambers of Town Hall, 400 Park Ave.
Menendez intern, alleged illegal immigrant and sex offender, arrested
An unpaid intern working in the offices of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) was arrested by agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office on Election Day, Nov. 6, outside his New Jersey home, according to an AP report. The intern, Luis Sanchez Zavaleta, 18, was originally working in the United States on a work visa from Peru, but allegedly remained in the country after his visa had expired. Zavaleta was reportedly required by the Hudson County prosecutor’s office to register as a sex offender in 2010, although the reasons are unclear as Zavaleta was a minor at the time.
Sen. Menendez, a Hoboken resident and former Union City mayor, told the AP that his staff was notified of the arrest on Monday, and had no previous knowledge of Sanchez’s legal status as an immigrant or a sex offender. The senator himself was notified on Tuesday, said his communications director, Tricia Enright, and that he was “appalled” by the news.
Sen. Menendez addressed the issue in an interview with MSNBC, which was planned as an opportunity for him to discuss his vehement pro-immigration policy views.
“We certainly wouldn’t have known through any background checks, since he is a minor, about any sex offender status,” he told MSNBC. “It does speak volumes about why we need comprehensive immigration reform. I can’t know who is here to pursue the American dream versus who is here to do it damage if I cannot get people to come forth out of the shadows.”
In a statement issued to The Hudson Reporter, Enright said that ties between Sanchez and the Senator’s office were immediately severed upon Sanchez’s arrest.
“Luis Sanchez was an unpaid college intern in our Newark office for approximately two months. No staff member responsible for managing the internship program had reason to believe, based on their interview process, that Sanchez had any criminal background or immigration issues,” said the statement. “Clearly Mr. Sanchez [allegedly] sought to deceive our staff.”
Enright also speculated that a possible reason for the confusion was due to Zavaleta’s last name. On his application and resumes sent to Sen. Menendez’s office, he listed his last name as Sanchez, rather than Zavaleta.
“No one in our office ever knew him as anyone other than Luis Sanchez,” she said.
The AP report alleged that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had directed ICE agents to wait until after the election to make the arrest, but Peter Boogaard, a spokesman for DHS, stated in a story that the AP’s report was “categorically false.” According to the AP, he did not specify which aspects of their story were false.
Zavaleta is currently imprisoned and could face deportation, the AP says. – Dean DeChiaro