Hundreds, if not thousands, of recent immigrants from Brazil and other Latin American countries fled Riverside, New Jersey after the factory town of 8,000 residents enacted legislation penalizing anyone who employed or rented to an illegal immigrant.

With the departure of so many people, however, the local economy suffered. Hair salons, restaurants, and corner shops that catered to the immigrants saw business plummet; several closed. The town was hit with two lawsuits challenging the law and many people started to have second thoughts. Riverside decided to rescind the ordinance, joining a small but growing list of municipalities nationwide that have begun rethinking such laws as their legal and economic consequences have become clearer.

"I don’t think people knew there would be such an economic burden,” said Mayor George Conard, who voted for the original ordinance. In the past two years, more than 30 towns nationwide have enacted laws intended to address problems attributed to illegal immigration, from overcrowded housing and schools to overextended police forces. Most of those laws, like Riverside’s, called for fines and even jail sentences for people who knowingly rented apartments to illegal immigrants or who gave them jobs.

But as these towns’ local economies continue to suffer with closing businesses and thousands of dollars going toward defending the ordinances, it remains to be seen if they too, will have a change of heart, and, if they do, will the immigrants who were forced to leave, ever come back?