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Last Updated: December 5, 2006

Allentown City Council to get bill on illegal immigration

Hershman's proposal is sent to members for January decision with recommendation to vote it down.

By Scott Kraus Of The Morning Call

After six months of debate, Allentown City Council is finally on track to settle its illegal immigration debate.

A two-member committee voted Monday to send Councilman Louis Hershman's latest immigration proposal to the full council for a January vote, with the recommendation it be voted down.

Hershman's proposal would require the city to enter into an agreement with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to train and certify city police officers in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Police Chief Roger MacLean told the committee — made up of councilmen Martin Velazquez III and Michael D'Amore — that he's against the idea.

The department already works with federal immigration authorities when it arrests suspects who are in the country illegally, he said. Entering into a more aggressive partnership would sap the department's already thin force and undermine efforts to improve community policing.

''We could end up providing manpower for them and right now that is nothing I have to spare,'' MacLean said.

Several people addressed the committee, divided about evenly for and against. The meeting, which some council members predicted would be heavily attended and emotionally charged, was fairly quietly before a small crowd of about 25 people and ended in under two hours.

Advocates for the Hispanic community said the proposal would cause Latinos in Allentown to feel unfairly targeted and fearful.

Rev. Neftali Olmeda of Third Day Worship Center and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said the plan would foster racial profiling and put Hispanics in an ''unneccesarily defensive posture.''

Lazaro Fuentes, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of the Lehigh Valley, said the city has enough trouble fighting crime with its strapped police force without diverting its resources.

''We cannot ask the brave men and women to go on a witch hunt for illegal immigrants,'' Fuentes said. ''…The problem is not illegal immigrants, the problem is crime.''

Supporters of Hershman's proposal said the ordinance was not targeting any race, but was aimed at protecting the city's quality of life.

Bill Dorward, a former business agent for the sheet metal workers union, said more active enforcement of immigration laws would protect the wages of union members and tradesmen who are citizens, and would also prevent illegal immigrants from being taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers.

''It protects the community by going after employers who hire these illegals,'' Dorward said.

Hershman said it was complaints about the hiring of illegal immigrants by union officials and union members that prompted his immigration proposals.

Hershman initially proposed a crackdown on employers who hired and landlords who rented to illegal immigrants, modeled after a similar proposal that passed in Hazleton. That proposal died before coming to a vote.

Hershman's current plan, which requires the police to work actively with federal immigration authorities, is actually two separate ordinances. One simply puts the measure in place; the other would put the proposal before voters in May. Both were forwarded with negative recommendations Monday.

Hershman said that if council rejects both proposals, he may mount a petition drive to place the measure on the ballot using citizen initiative.