Free Republic

Amid a national debate over whether local police should help enforce immigration rules, a lawsuit is charging San Jose and Police Chief Rob Davis with failing to report suspected illegal immigrants to federal authorities -- a practice that the suit alleges is itself against the law. The suit, filed by an Orange County attorney and activist, challenges a practice that San Jose and many other police departments openly acknowledge. If police were to pursue the immigration status of suspects, victims and witnesses, Davis has said, they would violate the trust of immigrant communities that they need to do their jobs....

An Orange County attorney filed a lawsuit Monday accusing a Kern County farmer of hiring illegal immigrants to undercut his client's contract to provide blueberry pickers during harvest. The suit on behalf of farm-labor contractor AgriLabor is the first in a series of suits that attorney David Klehm of Anaheim says he has undertaken since quitting his stable job as a medical-malpractice lawyer two months ago to take on California companies that he says skirt immigration law.

An Orange County attorney filed a lawsuit Monday accusing a Kern County farmer of hiring illegal immigrants to undercut his client's contract to provide blueberry pickers during harvest. The suit on behalf of farm-labor contractor AgriLabor is the first in a series of suits that attorney David Klehm of Anaheim says he has undertaken since quitting his stable job as a medical-malpractice lawyer two months ago to take on California companies that he says skirt immigration law. Klehm, 42, said his goal isn't to go after undocumented immigrants but rather the employers that make it tough for businesses to compete...

A couple of years ago, California voters handily enacted an initiative aimed at making it more difficult to sue businesses under the state's unfair business practices law. While many states have such laws, California's was considered to be especially liberal because anyone could sue anyone for alleged unfair practices without proving actual damages, thus giving rise to shakedown lawsuits -- or the threat of such suits -- against small businesses by unscrupulous law firms. Typically, a law firm would send a letter to a restaurant, a nail parlor or an auto garage, threatening to sue, based on some minor violation...

"Businesses that knowingly hire illegal aliens may find themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit as early as this summer. David Klehm, an Orange County attorney, says he will represent law-abiding firms which have suffered economic damage as a result of their competitors using cheap labor. He says the first suits could be filed this summer. “This has never been done before. This is the first time anyone in the country has actually used state civil law to prosecute employers of illegal aliens,” Mr. Klehm says. “We’re hoping … this will be a model for other states across the...