http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/in ... ylist=penn

Altoona latest to approve illegal immigrant crackdown
9/27/2006, 11:53 p.m. ET
The Associated Press


ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — City Council members on Tuesday night approved a measure aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants by punishing companies that hire them and landlords who rent to them.

The council voted 6-1, with member Matt Garber dissenting, to adopt the "Undocumented Alien Control Ordinance" proposal, which is similar to a measure passed in Hazleton earlier this year.

Before the vote, members heard passionate testimony from people for and against the ordinance.

"Who will take care of the people made homeless and unemployed?" asked The Rev. Luke Robertson, Catholic Charities director. "What might passing this kind of ordinance do to the soul of this city?"

Businessman Greg Sheehan, however, said the measure could keep problems such as depressed wages and crime from reaching Altoona, a city of about 47,000 that is 85 miles west of Pittsburgh.

"It's coming," he said. "We need to stop it before it happens."

The vote came a couple of weeks after a Blair County jury recommended that Miguel Padilla be sentenced to death for the murders of three men outside a city nightclub last year. Immigration authorities have said that Padilla, 27, of Gallitzin, had been in the country illegally from Mexico since he was about 9 years old.

Garber said he was concerned about how the ordinance would be enforced and the risk of litigation. He said he favors the employment provision but is not sure the rental provisions give landlords enough time to evict or enough tools to determine legality of renters.

Representatives of the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches, the American Civil Liberties Union and some community activists had asked the council to table the ordinance. Bishop Joseph Adamec of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown earlier said that if it was passed, there should be a "grandfather clause" allowing poor families to get help if needed.

Since the Hazleton vote, more than a half-dozen communities in eastern Pennsylvania have either passed or considered similar crackdowns on illegal immigrants, as have a number of municipalities around the country.

Hispanic activists and the ACLU sued to overturn Hazleton's illegal immigrant law, but the lawsuit was rendered moot earlier this month when the city passed a replacement law designed to better withstand a legal challenge.