Immigrant Becomes Candidate, Lashes Out

FRAMINGHAM — A fourth candidate has jumped into the selectmen’s race — a 32-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who has compared a local anti-illegal immigration group to the Nazis.

Mario Alvarez will face off against a group of candidates that includes Jim Rizoli, an outspoken critic of illegal immigrants. In a letter to the Daily News on Monday, Alvarez described Rizoli’s group, CCFIILE, as “reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.”

Alvarez yesterday went on to accuse Rizoli and supporters of Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement of “intimidating anyone that is different from them” and “paint(ing) everybody as illegal whether they are or not.”

Rizoli, who ran last year for selectman and received about 950 votes, fired back at those charges. He called Alvarez “a nutcase” who “needs to have his brain examined.”

“He’s the one who is a Nazi and a racist,” Rizoli said. “He’s a racist against American citizens.”

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