Thread: After appointment, city of Hazelton figures at odds

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After appointment, city figures at odds
Sunday, 17 September 2006
By KELLY MONITZ
kelly.monitz@standardspeaker.com
Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta supported and lobbied for Dr. Agapito Lopez’s appointment the Hazleton City Authority this past winter.

Now, the men find themselves on opposite sides of the city’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which has attracted national attention.

The mayor said last week he had hoped that Lopez would stand beside him, instead of in opposition to him.

But Lopez feels the mayor’s support for his appointment to the HCA board should not beholden him.

“I was not to be his follower or follow him,” Lopez said. “I was going to serve my people … and represent the ratepayers, not the government.

“We’re finishing this ‘you scratch my back, I scratch your back’ in Hazleton,” he said. “I don’t owe anything to Mr. Barletta.”

Lopez went on to explain that HCA board members receive no compensation for their service and that it’s more a volunteer position.

Also, he said the time had long passed for Latino representation in the city, especially when Latinos make up 30 percent of the city’s population.

“Latinos should be represented in all city agencies,” he said.

On this point, both Barletta and Lopez seem to agree, and it’s one of the reasons Barletta supported Lopez’s appointment in the first place.

“I wanted someone from the Latino community,” Barletta said. “I thought Mr. Lopez would represent the community well.”

But the mayor said he doesn’t think Lopez is representing the Latino community by opposing the city’s immigration relief actions.

“I don’t believe he speaks for the majority of the Latino community,” Barletta said. “Legal Latinos moved to Hazleton for quality of life, safe neighborhoods and safe playgrounds. I want to protect their rights.”

Barletta pointed to the Pine Street Playground, in the heart of a neighborhood heavily populated by Latinos, where city police arrested drug dealers and teenagers for firing a gun on the street this year.

“I don’t want drug dealers selling drugs where children play,” he said. “I don’t want gangs recruiting Latino children at that playground.

“This has nothing to do with race. These are Hispanic children I want to protect.”

Only one of the four people arrested for selling drugs at the playground was an illegal immigrant, while the others were documented. And Police Chief Robert Ferdinand confirmed that “at least one” illegal alien had been arrested related to incidents at the playground.

Police have arrested other illegal immigrants for drug dealing and for a murder on a city street within 10 blocks of the playground in recent months.

“I welcomed legal Latinos that have moved here,” Barletta said. “I spoke out against illegal immigration. Illegal is illegal. Not everyone understands that. Illegal does not have a race.”

Barletta accused Lopez of turning the city’s efforts into a race issue.

“We want safe neighborhoods. We want children to be safe,” the mayor said. “I was looking for him to stand beside me.”

Lopez said he does represent the Latino community and that he continues to be out in the community talking with people.

“I have not talked to a single Latino who doesn’t agree with me,” he said.
Lopez said he believes the city’s action against illegal aliens has more to do with politics than protection.

“He has his plans and he has his motives. He’s going with publicity all over the nation,” Lopez said of Barletta. “I just have my opinion. I have a different opinion.”

Lopez respects the mayor and thinks he is a good man, but does not support his legislation, he said.

That’s because he doesn’t believe the Illegal Immigration Relief Act is enforceable without violating civil rights and fears it could lead to racial profiling by police, who may pull over people just to check whether or not they’re documented, Lopez said.

The Hazleton eye doctor pointed to a recent report of an arrest of three undocumented men for a traffic stop, and the report never mentions a traffic violation – only that they were arrested as illegal aliens.

“They (the police) were acting as immigration agents,” Lopez said. “After they were in jail, they called ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement).”

A fourth person who tried to intervene on the men’s behalf, because he was fluent in both English and Spanish, was also detained, he said.

“Now, four of them are in jail,” Lopez said.

Chief Ferdinand did not recall the specific reason for the traffic stop, but said a violation did occur, whether it involved a turn signal, a stop sign or another traffic rule.

Normally, an officer would not know whether or not a driver was an illegal alien when presented with a valid driver’s license, he said, as no further identification or documentation is requested on a traffic stop.

In this incident, though, the driver presented the officer with a Mexican driver’s license and admitted that he and others in the car were in the country illegally, Ferdinand said.

The officer contacted ICE, which requested that the city detain the men, the chief said. Likewise, when the men’s friend came to check on them, the officer learned he was also undocumented, Ferdinand said, and ICE also asked that he be detained.

ICE doesn’t always ask officers to detain illegals when contacted, but in this case, the agency did, he said. (Previously, ICE officers told state police to let a car with illegal immigrants go following a stop on Interstate 80 in Butler Township, he said.)

Ferdinand said the Hazleton officer wasn’t acting as an immigration agent.

“The police department doesn’t have the power to enforce immigration law,” he said. “But if something comes to our attention, we act on it.”

Police officers do need to verify a person’s identity and status if they’re arrested for a serious crime, such as a drug violation, but normally would not do extensive checks on things such as traffic stops, Ferdinand said.

They also do not check to see if a victim of a crime is an illegal alien, he said. Ferdinand does not want people, whether citizens or not, to be afraid to report a crime such as rape or robbery against them, he said.

The police department exists to protect people from criminals, and illegal immigrants shouldn’t have to be silent victims because of their status, Ferdinand said.

Pursuing the person who committed the crime against an illegal alien is more important than the fact that the victim is illegal, he said.

“To say that person shouldn’t have been here in the first place isn’t logical,” Ferdinand said.

“To say that person shouldn’t have been here in the first place isn’t logical,” Ferdinand said.

What is not logical about saying that?

Sounds logical to me.

Makes perfect sense to me.

If you aren't here, then we don't have to worry about or spend money on your safety.

That’s because he doesn’t believe the Illegal Immigration Relief Act is enforceable without violating civil rights and fears it could lead to racial profiling by police, who may pull over people just to check whether or not they’re documented, Lopez said.

I don't understand this! There should not be a problem with PROFILING, if the shoe fits...!

“I welcomed legal Latinos that have moved here,” Barletta said. “I spoke out against illegal immigration. Illegal is illegal. Not everyone understands that. Illegal does not have a race.”

Barletta accused Lopez of turning the city’s efforts into a race issue.

I agree with Mayor Barletta. It is the Latinos who make it more of a race issue. And by throwing the race card at us so often we're suppose to feel guilty. Doesn't work anymore.

But Lopez feels the mayor’s support for his appointment to the HCA board should not beholden him.

“I was not to be his follower or follow him,” Lopez said. “I was going to serve my people … and represent the ratepayers, not the government.

Guess his real intent is showing now that he doesn't need Mayor Barletta's endorsement anymore. So now he is going to 'serve my people.' Can you imagine if Mayor Barletta said that?

Yes, they are allowed to say things just exactly like that! We would of course be accused of being racist!!! Americans have just got to stop worring about this crap. This is our country...if you don't like it GET OUT!
And if you are illegal... or those that promote you for their own agenda of "power"! STOP BEING USED BY THE PEOPLE THAT BEFRIEND YOU...THEY COULD CARE LESS ABOUT YOU...they may fight for rights that are not legally yours...only because they want your vote to promote their agenda NOT YOURS! You need to wake up too! If they really cared about you they would fight your corupt government to make real change! But...they would rather take over someone elses country! and use YOU to do it!
Wake up...in the end you won't be any better off than you were before you left Mexico!