Posted on 08/15/2006 2:14:23 PM PDT by theothercheek
Mayor Louis Barletta of Hazelton, PA, burst onto the national scene last month when he testified before a special Senate “field hearing” in Philadelphia about the impact of illegal immigration on the quality of life in his tiny community (pop. 22,000 to 31,000, according to various estimates), a former coal-mining town just south of Wilkes-Barre:
“We've seen a dramatic increase in gang-style graffiti, some of which has included threats to kill police officers,” Mr. Barletta said of his small town in the foothills of the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania. …
Mr. Barletta said four men charged with murder in the fatal shooting of 29-year-old Derek Kichline were in the U.S. illegally, including one, who had been arrested in various other jurisdictions – and released without deportation – eight times.
The day after Mr. Kichline's death in May, he said, a 14-year-old fired shots in a crowded city playground. The teen – an illegal alien – had 10 bags of crack cocaine when he was arrested.
Barletta had a novel solution: an ordinance that denied licenses to businesses employing illegal aliens; fined landlords $1,000 for each tenant who is in this country illegally; required tenants to undergo a background check with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain documentation assuring landlords they are in the US legally; and required city documents to be in English only. His Illegal Immigration Relief Act passed in a 4-to-1 vote, and was signed into law a month ago.
Barletta says illegal immigration is “destroying small towns” that don't have the budget to deal with the influx, according to USA Today:
Barletta says that even though the law isn't in effect yet, it's having an impact: “People are leaving daily.”
Hazleton's requirements are strict, but other communities also are targeting landlords and employers. A similar law passed recently in Riverside, N.J., and others are being drafted or voted on in several other communities where leaders have complained for months about inaction by federal lawmakers.
“If a byproduct of this is to send out a message and embarrass the people out in D.C., then maybe that's good,” says Andy Anderson, a councilman in Palm Bay, Fla. The city of 93,000 is one reading away from adopting a law that would fine anyone who employs an illegal immigrant a minimum of $500.
Similar measures are scheduled for votes in the Pennsylvania towns of Allentown (population 107,000), Shenandoah (5,300) and Mount Pocono (3,000). Local legislators in Gadsden, Ala. (population 37,400), Kennewick, Wash. (61,000), and Escondido, Calif. (134,000), are considering proposing legislation. A bill was narrowly rejected in Avon Park, Fla. (8,900).
Opponents, however, are lining up for a fight in Hazleton.
“This is a test case that will serve as a model for challenges around the country,” says criminal defense lawyer David Vaida of Allentown, Pa. He has joined forces with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and says they are preparing a lawsuit.
Though eager to pass a similar ordinance, council members of nearby Forty Fort, PA, are nervously eyeing the legal challenge to Hazelton’s law, fearing that the borough will be bankrupted by a protracted court fight, reports The Times Tribune of Scranton:.
The ordinance, almost identical to the law passed recently in Hazleton, would ban illegal immigrants from renting property, punish businesses that hire them and make English the official language of the borough.
“When (Councilman) Dave Williams initially brought up this immigration bill there were a few people, including Joe Chacke and myself, that recommended we table this thing until Hazleton’s legal battles were done,” Councilman Jim McCabe said. …
Mr. McCabe said Forty Fort’s annual operating budget is just over $1 million.
How much could the legal bills total? “The Citizens’ Voice recently reported City Council in San Bernardino, Calif., determined it would cost at least $750,000 to defend a similar proposal in federal court,” according to The Times Tribune.
The Stiletto has spent some years in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazelton vicinity, and is also familiar with the towns of Forty Fort and Mount Pocono. These towns are largely populated by elderly coalmine pensioners and younger blue-collar workers. While many of the older, statelier homes throughout the area have been purchased as week-end homes by well-off New Yorkers, or converted into professional doctors’ and lawyers’ offices, overall the tax base is not particularly robust.
ACLU-financed lawsuits could force town fathers to give up police, fire and ambulance service to be able to fight for the right to pass laws that preserve their residents’ quality of life – not to mention the character of their towns. This is just plain wrong.
Mmm, practically the recipe for an illegal alien population gaining a toehold while performing the menial work those schmucks won't do for themselves. THAT's why so many politicians grind that cliche' - they couldn't imagine themselves wacking bushes or their spouses hauling smelly laundry around.
People around the country fed-up with illegals will donate to foot the town's legal bills, thereby offsetting the costs.
Gee, I hope you're right. These oldsters deserve better than to pay taxes to support ER medical care for illegals when they can't afford to see their own docs and pay for their own meds, and to pay taxes to support classrooms and teachers for the children of illegals when their own kids have been out of school for decades - and then not have any police, fire or ambulance service available should an illegal commit a property or personal assault crime against them. The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. The ACLU should call itself the ABACLU - Anybody But American's Civil Liberties Union.
"ACLU-financed lawsuits could force town fathers to give up police, fire and ambulance service to be able to fight for the right to pass laws that preserve their residents’ quality of life – not to mention the character of their towns. This is just plain wrong."
I think we should pull 1000 troops out of Iraq, and sick em on the ACLU!!
"It was a very ritzy party and I bet she doesn't even live in the town."
Bank on it!
btt
Please contribute the the Hazelton Legal Defense Fund. We need to beat these pro-illegal activiists at their own game.
http://www.standardspeaker.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2690&Itemid=2
Donations to Hazleton can be made at the Web site smalltowndefenders.com or checks can be mailed to City Hall and made out to the Hazleton Legal Defense Fund
Thanks, I will!
Wow! This is great! I will get the word out to as many people as I can (donate, too). I hope that Forty Fort and other towns near Hazelton that are itching to pass similar laws take heart and go ahead with their plans.
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