ACLU Targets PA. Town Over Immigration Ordinance

Since 08-20-06

By Monisha Bansal
CNSNews.com Staff Writer

August 17, 2006

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200608/NAT20060817d.html

(CNSNews.com) - Mayor Louis J. Barletta of Hazleton, Pa., is standing by one of the strictest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country in spite of a lawsuit claiming the ordinance is unconstitutional.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Wednesday, challenging that the Hazleton ordinance. The law would fine landlords who rent to illegal aliens, deny business permits to entities that employ them, and make English the town's official language.

The mayor is not surprised by the legal action.

"While the news of the lawsuit against the city - against each and every legal citizen of Hazleton - is not unexpected," Barletta told the Hazleton Standard-Speaker, "it is unfortunate.

"The city has taken what we believe to be proper legal steps in making Hazleton uncomfortable for illegal aliens, who are the root of some of Hazleton's crimes," Barletta explained, "without directly infringing on their rights.

"We are not going to be bullied," he added.

The ordinance states that "[I]llegal immigration leads to higher crime rates, contributes to overcrowded classrooms and failing schools, subjects our hospitals to fiscal hardship and legal residents to substandard quality of care, contributes to other burdens on public services, increasing their cost and diminishing their availability to lawful residents, and destroys our neighborhoods and diminishes our overall quality of life."

It was passed on July 13 by a four-to-one vote and is scheduled to take effect on Sept. 11. Opponents say the ordinance is unconstitutional because it attempts to "usurp the role of the federal government." The city disagrees.

"We cannot and will not enforce immigration law," Barletta said. "That's the federal government's job. So if ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) visits a plant and takes out employees as illegal, the city will follow up."

In their complaint, the ACLU argues that the effect of the ordinance would be "to infringe the Constitutional rights of all Hazletonians who look or sound like 'foreigners,' not just those who are here in the United States 'illegally.'

"If the Ordinance is allowed to stand, anyone who looks or sounds 'foreign' - regardless of their actual immigration status - will not be able to participate meaningfully in life in Hazleton," the ACLU complaint continues, "returning to the days when discriminatory laws forbade certain classes of people from owning land, running businesses or living in certain places."

The ordinance authorizes penalties against a landlord only if he "knowingly allows an illegal alien to use rent or lease" his property, and against an employing business only if it does not act "with due diligence to verify the legal work status of all persons whom it employs."

Businesses also face a five-year ban on receiving or renewing a business license, grant or contract from the city for the first offense of "funding or providing goods and services to illegal aliens." The second offense invokes a ten-year ban. None of the provisions applies to "emergency medical assistance, emergency care or legal assistance."