Posted on 09/03/2006 10:29:46 PM PDT by Pikamax
Latinos protest Pennsylvania town's immigration law Sun Sep 3, 2006 10:44 PM ET
By Jon Hurdle
HAZLETON, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Latinos and their supporters gathered on Sunday to protest a local law that was the first in the United States to crack down on illegal immigration.
About 250 representatives of Hazleton's Hispanic community, and others from surrounding cities, met in a city park to protest the town's Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance.
The ordinance penalizes businesses hiring illegal immigrants, fines landlords renting rooms to them and establishes English as the official language of the town.
Agapito Lopez of the Hazleton Area Latino Taskforce, an organizer of the event, said many illegal immigrants have left the town since the measure was passed by the city council on July 13.
"They don't want to be where they are not wanted," he told Reuters. He said some local farms and factories now have a labor shortage because illegal immigrants are leaving town.
Before the law was enacted, he estimated a quarter of the town's Latino population of some 10,000 were undocumented aliens.
The town's Latino population has surged to about a third of the 31,000 total from about 5 percent in 2000, officials say.
Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, principal backer of the law, blames illegal immigration for rising crime and overburdened schools and hospitals being used by those who don't pay taxes.
Hazleton is being sued over the law by civil rights groups including the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which says the measure has been copied by six other towns -- four in Pennsylvania, one in New Jersey and one in Missouri.
The city council last week agreed to delay implementing the law so it can be redrafted to exclude a measure that would have penalized shopkeepers for selling to illegal immigrants. A new version of law, which had been scheduled for implementation on September 11, could be voted on by the middle of the month.
Protesters were asked not to chant or shout to avoid a repeat of a rally in Riverside, New Jersey, on August 20 when opponents of that town's illegal immigration ordinance were heckled by hundreds of local residents.
Ed Makuta, 35, one of about a dozen local residents who gathered to oppose the protest, said he was "100 percent in favor of Barletta" and called Lopez a troublemaker. "He is the one causing divisions in this town," Makuta said.
John Studer, 59, who traveled from Philadelphia to support the protest, argued that the law is discriminatory.
"It's effect is that anyone who is Latino is going to come under special scrutiny," he said.
Would that be US citizen Latinos or illegal immigrant Latinos? It never quite specifies in the article. Countrymen, or foreign agitators?
Does it really make a difference?
I recommend to all Latinos that they petition the government to strickly enforce all immigration laws and to deport any illegals they find here. When the problem subsides, they will not have to worry about being "selected" for this trreatment.
Ultimately, nope. 250 people even after they're busing them in doesn't really deserve much attention.
Follow the money.
Bump to your thought.
So it's not just Southern California anymore?
And we don't want them to want to be where they are not wanted.
So there.
This bonehead is an idiot. If the law applies to ALL illegal aliens, how can it be "discriminatory?" If it doesn't apply to ALL illegal aliens, then the wording needs to be changed.
L.O.L....Latinos in Pennsylvania??...Thanks alot to you mofo demos and repo's..they are everywhere...It's not their fault..it's yours you bastards!
Now the rest of the state needs to follow their lead.
Yes, it does. LEGAL LATINOS don't want illegals getting around the system any more than anyone else does. My family worked too hard getting their legal paperwork in order to stand by and let a lot of slovenly criminals bypass the system and obtain residency. It's an insult and can't be tolerated.
Too bad
A step in the right direction. The Federal and State governments won’t do anything for fear of angering campaign contributors, so the localities have to do it themselves.
LOL, well put.
bump and mark
My grandparents did it legally, too, and while it wasn't as hard in those days as it is now, there was no welfare, medicaid, and food stamps. Thanks for the input from someone who really knows.
I agree, if you base your business model on cheap, underpaid, illegal labor with no benefits and no sick days and who can't complain about unsafe working conditions and long hours, then YOUR BUSINESS DESERVES TO FAIL.
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