A not-so-bright anti-immigrant billboard placement in my hometown

Perhaps its message is too subtle. Or maybe it should have been written in a language other than English.

But an anti-immigrant billboard posted on a wall facing the White Castle parking lot at Kennedy Boulevard and Newark Avenue in Jersey City - an intersection teeming with immigrants - is getting little attention from the locals. [this intersection is the heart of Jersey City's "Little India"]

The roughly 8-foot by 10-foot black sign with bold white lettering reads: "Attention: Illegal Aliens. Cambridge, Mass. is a sanctuary city. For help getting there visit projectusa.org/nj-mass transit."

The sign is a reference to the Cambridge City Council, which recently reaffirmed the city's status as a sanctuary for illegals, meaning their local authorities won't report undocumented workers to the feds.

Krishna Devireddi, a software engineer from India who came to the U.S. six months ago, walks past the intersection heading to "Little India" twice a day but never noticed the sign until a reporter pointed it out.

Even when he focused on it, Devireddi, who speaks English and Hindi, was confused about its message.

"It is a university," said Devireddi, focusing on "Cambridge," a world-class university in England and the Massachusetts city that's home to Harvard University.

"Are they saying to go to live there - happily?" he asked.

Spanish-speaking Cecelia Castro, a self-identified illegal immigrant from Ecuador, couldn't read the sign. After it was translated for her, she responded in Spanish.

"It's no good. Immigrants come here and work very hard, but don't receive government services," she said.

The billboard's sponsor is ProjectUSA, a Washington DC-based group dedicated to keeping illegal immigrants out of the country, according the group's director Craig Nelsen.

Having attracted press coverage from CNN, the Boston Globe, and several local Boston TV stations, Nelsen admitted the billboard's target audience isn't necessarily illegal immigrants in Jersey City - although he would love to see Cambridge flooded with undocumented immigrants.

"We would love for Cambridge to be inundated with illegals to the point they have to pass laws to keep them out - the same kind they are now denigrating," Nelsen said.

The ProjectUSA Web site provides bus schedules and fare information for trips from Newark to Boston. It also invites New Jersey residents and others who would like to be rid of undocumented immigrants to pitch in for bus fares.

Right now, the Jersey City sign, which the group pays just under $5,000 every six month to lease, is the group's only billboard, he said.

Journal Square Councilman Steve Lipski called the billboard "despicable. People come her to realize the 'American Dream' and they get sandbagged."