Thread: Altoona bishop asks city to drop proposed immigrant ordinanc

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/15513594.htm

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Altoona bishop asks city to drop proposed immigrant ordinance
Associated Press

ALTOONA, Pa. - A Roman Catholic bishop is leading a diverse group asking the Altoona City Council to drop or revamp an ordinance on illegal immigrants.

The ordinance would punish companies that hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them.

Bishop Joseph Adamec and representatives from the Episcopal Church, the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of community activists say they want Altoona officials to table the ordinance before voting on September 27 whether to adopt it.

But their objections at last night's council meeting angered some council members, who say they're tired of being accused of being insensitive to immigrants.

The debate in Altoona came a day after the Hazleton City Council approved a new version of an immigration ordinance it passed in July.

http://www.altoonamirror.com/News/artic ... cleID=4775

Thursday, September 14, 2006 — Time: 2:01:55 AM EST

Opponents attack city’s proposed illegal immigrant ordinance

By William Kibler, bkibler@altoonamirror.com

Heading a delegation of Catholic priests, the bishop of the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese urged City Council Wednesday to drop a proposed ordinance designed to make it hard for illegal aliens to live and work here.

“I beg, I beg, I beg this council to reconsider or at least rewrite this,’’ said Joseph Adamec, who spoke first among ordinance opponents representing the Episcopal Church, the Community Action Agency and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Their messages seemed to move council more to anger and resentment than in the direction they intended.

An ordinance that would punish companies that hire illegals and landlords who rent to them would make it awkward for people of faith, who must follow the commandment to feed the poor and shelter the homeless, Adamec said.

“I don’t question your good intentions,” he said. “[And] I understand the need to secure the borders.”

But the national problem is less the fault of the aliens than the fault of the federal government to enforce immigration laws, Adamec said.

Trying to correct the problem with a local ordinance only sends an unfortunate message about how this city treats human beings, he said.

Sergio Carmona, resource development officer for Community Action, said the ordinance invites discrimination against legal immigrants like him based on presumption and appearance.

The proposal already has led to verbal abuse in the workplace for a local citizen with a Hispanic accent, he said.

In order to find a convenient scapegoat, the city has “jumped on the bandwagon of hatred and divisiveness,” Carmona said.

Convicted triple murderer and illegal alien Miguel Padilla, cited in the ordinance as one of many justifications for it, came here as a child and was corrupted by the area’s drug culture, not by jumping the border from Mexico, he said.

Council member Ron Reidell lashed back, saying it offends him to hear council accused of insensitivity to legal aliens.

He has a daughter born in Thailand, a son who’s half Thai and a grandson who’s a Pacific Islander, none of whom came here illegally, he said.

It’s all about the criminality, he said.

“Just like if you came out of your house and robbed a gas station,” he said.

After the meeting, council member Joe Rieker — whose wife is from South America — said the protests were insulting and provoked his anger more than anything he’s heard as a councilman.

It’s outrageous to use Padilla to contest the ordinance, councilman Mark Geis said.

Had the ordinance been in place in August 2005, the victims’ survivors might not have been at a murder trial this week, he said.

If every municipality did what Altoona is doing, there would soon be no illegal alien problem, Rieker said.

Council never claimed there is a problem here, but are trying to be proactive, he said.