With Gov. Corzine’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Immigration Policy calling for an Office on New Americans, New Jersey could become the leader of a new trend to help integrate immigrant families into the culture and work force.

But immigration advocates say that for comprehensive immigration reform to move to the front burner nationally, Americans still must see the need in human terms.

Patricia Zapor of Catholic News Service did a good job of painting just such a picture in the Washington Letter March 27 by presenting the terrible story of two "citizen children" left behind after an immigration raid in Worthington, Minn.

Quoting from a report entitled "Severing a Lifeline: The neglect of Citizen Children in America’s Immigration Enforcement," Zapor cited the case of a second grader, a good student and previously happy child who returned home from school to find his 2-year old brother alone.

"The boys’ parents had been arrested in an immigration raid at a Swift & Co. plant and were unable to arrange for someone to care for the children. The older boy took care of his little brother alone for a week until their grandmother was able to take over caring for the boys, both U.S. citizens," Zapor wrote.

The report said that when "Miguel" returned to school, his teacher told investigators the previously happy child had become absolutely catatonic. His attendance became spotty at best. His grades plummeted and at the end of the school year, he was not allowed to move to third grade with the rest of his class.

In the annals of immigration advocacy, this case, like the infamous raid on Agriprocesssors meatpacking plant in Iowa that turned St. Bridget Church in Postville into a temporary home and soup kitchen for hundreds of children, has become iconic. Sad to say though, they are only two threads in a tapestry that expands every day.

In New Jersey, for instance, putting a human face on the need for immigration reform can be as easy to do as driving downtown or stopping for gas.

Running errands any morning in the host of towns that frame the network of highways in Central New Jersey is all it takes to become familiar with the muster zones lined with men hoping for day jobs from area contractors.

Over the years, I’ve come to know where those zones are located. In Red Bank, for instance, men wait near St. Anthony of Padua Church for the work that is so hard to come by these days. In Manasquan, they wait for work near the railroad station.

In Lakewood, where I live, despite the efforts of the township committee to move them elsewhere, they hover downtown.

Focusing in on these would-be workers can be a moving and unsettling experience, especially if you pass by late in the morning or early afternoon when it’s clear from looking at their faces that they have been passed over for the day and will go home with empty pockets.

It was in a gas station, though, that the human face took on dramatic life late one afternoon. The station, which consistently charges less than its competitors for a gallon of gas is a popular place with area contractors and residents trying to keep a lid on spending.

While waiting for service, I noted a white truck, filled with day laborers at the opposite pump.

As his gas tank filled up, the contractor got out of the truck and began paying the crew. Everyone at the station could hear that he was paying less than half of the agreed upon amount. Most of the men in the truck got pretty vocal about this situation but one man, simply rested his head against the truck window and sunk into a resigned posture.

The contractor told them they could either "take it or leave it" but the amount wasn’t going to change, either was he going to make good on what he owed them at any time in the future.

Looking on as this happened were other customers shaken by this drama and the station employees, African immigrants who said this was nothing they hadn’t seen before. We all knew that the contractor’s crew was likely to be undocumented and would seek no redress.

Trying to use legal means to get their pay might set an immigration raid in motion, a risk they just couldn’t take.

The image of that truck full of men, tired, spattered with the dust of a hard days work and about to go home with half empty pockets has stayed with me. Theirs were the human faces I saw when Cardinal Francis George, president of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, called on the Obama administration to end immigration raids across the country March 21.

It’s an image reinforced by the cardinal’s plea for "all of us to stay together, a people united in the Lord" and stand for the passage of compassionate comprehensive immigration reform "which reflects the compassion of Jesus Christ." Read the full text of the cardinal’s statement at http://www.cliniclegal.org/resources/cardinal-george