Hazleton council passes ordinance against illegal immigrants

Hazleton begins enforcing, defending illegal-immigration measure
MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/15032898.htm

HAZLETON, Pa. - The mayor signed a city ordinance Friday that punishes people who do business with illegal immigrants or provide them with jobs or housing while critics called the new law unenforceable and predicted it will be overturned.

Mayor Lou Barletta said his office will soon begin to train city workers in how to check people's immigration or citizenship status. He also expects the City Council to approve companion legislation requiring all tenants to register with the city and prove their legal residency.

"We will start the process of training employees and possibly hiring someone as well," Barletta said Friday. "We're also going to be talking with Immigration and Customs (Enforcement) to see if possibly we could receive some assistance."

The city's Code Enforcement Department will implement the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, a law passed by the City Council on Thursday that fines landlords $1,000 per day for each illegal immigrant living on their properties.

"Do I have confidence that employees of the City of Hazleton will be able to implement this policy in a way that makes sense? Absolutely not," said Lee Llambelis, legal director of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Llambelis said her organization will file a lawsuit that will claim the ordinance violates the federal government's jurisdiction over immigration.

"We very much expect there to be similar cookie-cutter ordinances popping up all over the country," she said. "We will start in Hazleton but are prepared to litigate them nationally."

Barletta, a Republican, proposed the law to address crime, school crowding, hospital costs and demands for city services that he attributes to an influx of illegal immigrants in the northeastern Pennsylvania town of about 31,000 residents. The measure has divided the city, with many longtime residents supporting Barletta, but the growing Latino community is largely opposed to it.

The Hazleton ordinance is the latest example of local and state governments, frustrated by federal inaction to combat illegal immigration, developing their own solutions to the problems it creates.

"It's looking like we're going to see a tidal wave of local governments stepping up to the plate on handling illegal immigration on the local level," said Joseph Turner, who proposed an ordinance similar to Hazleton's in San Bernardino, Calif. "And I believe it's going to put enormous pressure on the federal government to finally act."

Arizona, Colorado and California are among the states that have acted unilaterally to control undocumented immigration, said Gabriel Escobar. He co-authored a national survey of Hispanics released Thursday that found most believe the national immigration-policy debate has increased discrimination.

"What people are realizing, and what Hazleton and other communities like Hazleton are a sign of, is that even though this is entirely a federal responsibility, the effects of immigration are felt most acutely on the local level," said Escobar, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.

The vote in Hazleton will alienate the influx of thousands of Hispanic residents whose arrival has revitalized the town, said Lazaro Fuentes, board chairman of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of the Lehigh Valley, an organization of about 200 businesses 35 miles southeast of Hazleton.

"This is politicization of a hot topic right now, and enforcing it is about as enforceable as the fact that you leave your house without $2 in your pocket and you can be arrested for vagrancy," he said.

ON THE NET

Hazleton: http://www.hazletoncity.org/home_frameset.htm

HAZLETON, Pa. - The Hazleton City Council approved an ordinance Thursday night designed to make the city among the most hostile places in the United States for illegal immigrants to live or work.

The 4-to-1 vote came after nearly two hours of passionate debate. Opponents argued it was divisive and possibly illegal, but supporters argued illegal immigrants' growing numbers have damaged the quality of life in this northeastern Pennsylvania city.

"We must draw the line, and we are doing it tonight," Mayor Lou Barletta told a packed city council chambers.

Barletta proposed the Illegal Immigration Relief Act last month as a response to what he said were Hazleton's problems with violent crime, crowded schools, hospital costs and the demand for services.

The ordinance would deny licenses to businesses that employ illegal immigrants, fine landlords $1,000 for each illegal immigrant discovered renting their properties, and require city documents to be in English only.

"The illegal citizens, I would recommend they leave," Barletta said after the meeting.

"What you see here tonight, really, is a city that wants to take back what America has given it," said the mayor, who said he wore a bulletproof vest to the meeting. He said he had not been threatened but took precautions because the issue was such an emotionally charged one.

"I think it's good for Hazleton, and I think it's good for the country," council president Joseph Yannuzzi said.

Outside City Hall, about 300 people gathered with opponents of the measure, some with signs that read "Bias," separated by a line of police from supporters, some waving American flags.

Anna Arias spoke at the council meeting against the ordinance. She asked the council, "Are any of us ready to support U.S. citizens born of someone who is undocumented?" Several people in the audience responded, "Yes!"

She warned the council that approving the ordinance would make Hazleton "the first Nazi city in the country."

Jack Mundie, the council vice president, voted for the ordinance.

"We're against illegal immigrants that are coming here and that are draining the resources of our city," he said.

The ordinance adopted at the meeting had been extensively amended from an earlier draft; one change would deny a license to any business that provides goods or services to an illegal immigrant. City solicitor Christopher B. Slusser said the provision would likely be invoked only against business people who knowingly violated it, and the city would deal with violators "on a case-by-case basis."

The Republican mayor's proposal has thrust the 31,000-population city to the fore of the national debate on illegal immigration.

The number of Hispanic residents in Hazleton, a former coal-mining town about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia, has increased dramatically in the past six years.

City officials acknowledge they do not know how many are illegal immigrants, whom Barletta has blamed for higher crime rates, failing schools and a diminished quality of life.

Carolina Taveras, a 30-year-old naturalized citizen from the Dominican Republic who moved to Hazleton from New York City a year ago, said the mayor's proposal has made her feel unwelcome.

A few doors down from where Taveras was getting her hair done at a downtown beauty salon that caters to Hispanic women, restaurant owner George Giannakouros said he is sympathetic to Barletta's approach.

"I agree with the mayor, there is a problem," Giannakouros said. "I work at my business at night, I like to feel safe."

In a letter sent to Barletta earlier this week, attorneys with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund threatened to sue on the grounds that the ordinance infringes upon the federal government's power to regulate immigration.

The lone "No" vote was cast by councilman Robert Nilles, who expressed concern about the legality of the ordinance.

Nilles attempted to amend the vote by stripping out a portion regulating landlords, but it died for lack of a second.

The act passed the council 4-1 on a preliminary vote last month. A similar measure was approved Tuesday by the supervisors in Hazle Township, which surrounds the city of Hazleton.

Other municipalities across the country also have considered acting to address illegal immigration. Ordinances similar to the Hazleton measure have been proposed in the Florida communities of Palm Bay and Avon Park and the California towns of Escondido and San Bernardino.