UPDATE: Did racist 'Make Edison Great Again' election mailer break any laws?

EDISON - An unknown group sent anti-Indian and anti-Chinese campaign mailers to homes in Edison proclaiming "Make Edison Great Again" and calling for the deportation of two Asian school board candidates.

The postcards say, "The Chinese and Indians are taking over our town. Chinese school! Indian school! Cricket fields! Enough is enough."

Above those words are pictures of board of education candidates Jerry Shi and Falguni Patel. The bottom of their photos are partially covered by the words "deport" in what's presumably an image of a passport stamp.

The ads don't identify the group that paid for them, which violates state election law.

The back of the postcard reads:

"Stop the overcrowding! Stop taking over our sports fields! Stop the McMansions! Stop the multiple families living in the same house! Stop wasting school holiday! Stop the outsiders!

"Let's take back Edison and our schools!"

In response to the mailer, sitting mayor Thomas Lankey issued a statement calling the campaign flier "despicable."

"Edison has proudly embraced our ethnic, cultural and religious diversity," the Democrat said.

"It has become a sad reality that in our polarized political atmosphere, some people suddenly feel empowered to publicly express these vile nativist ideas. Make no mistake, we will do everything we can to expose the shameful people behind this."

The Republican candidate for mayor, Keith Hahn, called for the "faceless cowards" to be exposed.

"This flier is shameful and disgraceful," he said.

Patel, a Democratic committeewoman and immigration lawyer, says she's disgusted by the pamphlets. Both mayoral candidates have also denounced the mailers.

Nearly half of Edison's approximately 102,000 residents are Asian, according to the the U.S. Census. About 45 percent of the town's residents are foreign-born.

Edison is the fifth-largest municipality in the state and is New Jersey's most populous suburb, according to 2016 census estimates.

@MattFriedmanNJ have you seen this Edison mailer yet? pic.twitter.com/gU1FsU62WA — charmi patel pena (@charmipena) November 2, 2017

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.