Under the offensive name, “La Cuca Gotcha,” a popular local radio show is asking its audience to turn in illegal immigrants who live in New Jersey to federal authorities.

The campaign was launched on February 6, and according to a website comment, during its first week authorities became aware of 177 cases that they are now investigating.

The purpose of the campaign “La Cuca Gotcha,” a reference to catching cockroaches, according to the commentators, “Jersey Guys” Craig Carton and Ray Rossi of WKXWNJ 101.5 FM, is to “make New Jersey a safe state, legally reporting and deporting illegal immigrants who live within the Garden State.”

According to the program, which is broadcast every afternoon, the goal is to denounce at least 300 undocumented immigrants before the end of the campaign, which will conclude on May 5, coinciding with the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo {Fifth of May]. They also discussed on air the possibility of renting a bus or going around to neighborhoods themselves to detain undocumented immigrants.

In a flyer, which Trenton residents say was distributed where immigrants live, people are encouraged to report undocumented immigrants, calling a hotline managed by the radio show, calling immigration services or sending an e-mail to the radio station with the information.

Assemblyman Wilfredo Caraballo (D-NJ) said, “This shows a total lack of respect and is a cowardly and clever attack against the Hispanic community by two markedly racist individuals, who hide behind a microphone, to call the population to arms against the thousands of humble workers who come to this country seeking peace and opportunity.”

Caraballo assured us that he is preparing an official letter of protest as part of a series of measures to get the radio station to immediately stop the commentators’ insulting campaign against Latinos.

Martín Pérez, president of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, said, “Our organization’s position, from our immigration committee, is to go to the sponsors of the show and inform them that their money is being used to sponsor racist programming against the Hispanic community.

“The message is that if these sponsors want the Hispanic community to continue buying their products, they have to stop sponsoring these programs,” highlighted Pérez. “The buying power that Hispanics really possess, we have to use it as a weapon against this type of attack.”

This newspaper asked for an interview with the program’s commentators, but they would only allow it live on air during their program.

In their communications promoting the initiative, the two commentators, who have already had problems in the past for their fervently racist and disrespectful style of treating certain topics, insist that their campaign is about “eradicating from the state all illegal immigrants who have repeatedly broken our laws and disrespected the tradition of receiving all immigrants with open arms.”

Sources close to the station reveal that the two commentators have been reprimanded by management on repeated occasions, but without success because of the importance of the advertising profits that the program generates for Millennium Radio, the company that owns the radio station.