Posted on 12/27/2007 5:25:28 PM PST by doug from upland
This guy needs to be the governor of Pennsylvania, and then .............
Judge Overturns Pennsylvania City’s Illegal Immigrant Ordinance
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
July 27, 2007
(CNSNews.com) - The mayor of a Pennsylvania city has vowed to appeal a federal judge’s ruling striking down a law that would fine landlords who rent to illegal aliens and deny permits to businesses that employ them.
“Federal law prohibits Hazelton from enforcing any of the provisions” of the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, U.S. District Judge James Munley wrote in his 206-page ruling on Thursday.
“Whatever frustrations officials of the city of Hazleton may feel about the current state of federal immigration enforcement, the nature of the political system in the United States prohibits the city from enacting ordinances that disrupt a carefully drawn federal statutory scheme,” Munley stated.
“Even if federal law did not conflict with Hazleton’s measures, the city could not enact an ordinance that violates rights the Constitution guarantees to every person in the United States, whether legal resident or not,” he said.
“We cannot say clearly enough that persons who enter this country without legal authorization are not stripped immediately of all their rights because of this single act,” the judge added.
Vic Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and a lead attorney in the case, applauded the court’s decision.
“We are grateful the court recognized that municipal laws like those in Hazleton are unconstitutional. The trial record showed that these ordinances are based on propaganda and deception,” he said in a news release.
“Hazleton-type laws are designed to make life miserable for millions of immigrants,” Walczak added. “They promote distrust of all foreigners, including those here legally, and fuel xenophobia and discrimination, especially against Latinos.”
Hazleton Mayor Louis Barletta vowed to appeal the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I am very disappointed Judge Munley has ruled against all legal residents of the city of Hazleton,” Barletta said. “We are discouraged to see a federal judge has decided — wrongly, we believe — that Hazleton and cities like it around the nation cannot enact legislation to protect their citizens, their services and their budgets.
“Sadly, today’s decision sends the wrong message to elected officials in Washington and elsewhere,” he stated. “However, I know that we, the American people, want our cities secured, our borders protected and our citizenship respected.”
Still, “this fight is far from over,” Barletta added. “But today’s decision shows the size of the challenge a small city like Hazleton faces when it chooses to take on the powerful, well-funded special interest groups and lobbyists.”
‘Not ready to lose’
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, after Hazleton experienced a stabbing, a drug bust and a few absentee landlords with as many as nine residents living in a single unit, Barletta said he lay awake one night and thought, “I’ve lost my city.”
Hazleton, located in eastern Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County, had a population of 23,329 in the 2000 census. Although the city’s website puts the population at only “about 25,000,” it has reportedly undergone a major growth in population since then.
Hispanic immigrants began settling in the area in large numbers several years ago, drawn from New York, Philadelphia and other cities by cheap housing, low crime and the availability of work in nearby factories and farms.
Before 2000, Barletta recalled earlier this year, the town averaged one murder every seven years. After an influx of illegal immigrants, there had been three murders in 18 months, he said.
As a result, Barletta introduced the ordinance, which was passed on July 13, 2006, by a city council vote of 4 to 1.
The law states that illegal 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.”
But before the legislation could take effect, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the city, charging that the measure would “ infringe the constitutional rights of all Hazletonians who look or sound like ‘foreigners,’ not just those who are here in the United States ‘illegally.’”
Barletta defended the legislation, stating that “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 ... without directly infringing on their rights.”
Last August, a federal judge in the nearby city of Scranton issued a temporary order preventing the ordinance from being enforced. That decision was effectively confirmed on Thursday.
Hazleton’s law has been copied by dozens of municipalities whose officials believe the federal government hasn’t done enough to stop illegal immigration.
While Munley’s ruling does not affect those measures, the ACLU said it is “closely monitoring” those situations and “has initiated several related legal challenges.”
Nevertheless, Barletta promised to push ahead on the matter. “I’m not ready to lose,” he said. “We’re not only fighting for Hazleton. We are fighting for cities across the country.”
Mayor of Hazleton at Firestorm’s Center (HispanicBusiness.com)
Submitted by Small Town Defender on Wed, 2007-10-17 12:00. ::
By Mary E. Young
Reading Eagle
Senior citizens in Hazleton are afraid to sit on their front porches for fear they will become crime victims.
Parents, including those who speak Spanish, refuse to allow their children to visit playgrounds for fear the youngsters will be approached by drug dealers or recruited into gangs.
Those conditions were described by Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who said they have caused him to be labeled a racist and led him into a legal quagmire over illegal immigration.
Barletta said he actually is just the mayor of a small, financially strapped Luzerne County city who is trying to improve the quality of life for legal residents with laws penalizing landlords and businesses that exploit illegal immigrants.
Gee, if he solves this problem and it leads to other cities solving it, he deserves a ticket to Congress.
I agree.
I guess.
But it does not seem possible. Hazleton has not changed the problems remain. The town is a mess. You would not believe you were in the year 2007 when you drive through.
This one seems suitable for the AFIRE ping list.
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts
In this poll Hunter is up 3% and even with Paul and Thompson.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=3481ef60-8195-46a9-af04-b87b907bcfdd
He’s trying. It’s difficult for a small town to battle the ACLU and a Clinton-appointed judge.
Yep,Hazleton looks a lot like parts of N.J and N.Y.
Not even a ghetto Hazleton can ever look like NY and NJ. Hazleton has no good Italian food or Restaurants and a lousy mall. I can’t even get Italian bread or pastry.
Did’nt think about those things.The closest town to me is Benton.We don’t have a mall and most people here bake thier own bread.
IMO this judge is a moron and a Democrat with a disordered, warped and twisted mind. The Constitution was written for legal residents of this country; otherwise you have no country at all! Furthermore, the judge is overlooking the burden in taxes, the burden of lost or damaged property and persons, the burden of less safety, and higher risks to the lawful residents of the city. In effect, the judge is insisting that the city must pay for damage done by criminals, while ignoring criminal acts.
bump
Benton is Colombia County?
You are the second Freeper I met today that is close by. It’s nice to know their is some sanity around me!
Good night!
Whoo Hoo!!!
Thanks for posting, doug. Hooray Lou Barletta!
Illegal immigrants moving out (USA Today)
Submitted by Small Town Defender on Wed, 2007-09-26 12:00. ::
By Emily Bazar
USA TODAY
Illegal immigrants living in states and cities that have adopted strict immigration policies are packing up and moving back to their home countries or to neighboring states.
The exodus has been fueled by a wave of laws targeting illegal immigrants in Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and elsewhere. Many were passed after congressional efforts to overhaul the immigration system collapsed in June.
Immigrants say the laws have raised fears of workplace raids and deportation.
“People now are really frightened and scared because they don’t know what’s going to happen,” says Juliana Stout, an editor at the newspaper El Nacional de Oklahoma. “They’re selling houses. They’re leaving the country.”
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