http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/spe ... 87043.html

Immigration

Vanessa Rieker, originally from Peru, and her husband, City Councilman Joe Rieker, with their baby, say they approve of Altoona's new ordinance involving illegal immigrants.
KALIM A. BHATTI: New York Times
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Dec. 7, 2006, 7:35PM
Altoona's law stays 'ahead of the curve'
Businesses and landlords are held accountable under the town's new immigration law


By SEAN D. HAMILL
New York Times


ALTOONA, PA. — By now the pattern is familiar. New businesses move to town, creating low-paying, low-skill jobs that are quickly filled by immigrants. Most are Hispanics who speak little English. Some may be in the country illegally.

After a few years, local leaders fume that school enrollment has surged, social services are stretched and crime has increased, and they blame the illegal immigrants.

Since June, when Hazleton, Pa., some 130 miles east of here, began debating what to do about illegal immigrants, more than 60 local governments in 21 states have followed its lead and considered new ordinances to drive them away.

At least 15 have approved the measures, typically intended to punish landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and business owners who employ them.

Altoona, an old railroad town nestled in an Appalachian Mountain valley about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh, is one of those 15. It approved its ordinance in October. But it does not fit the same pattern.


No immigrants, yet

Altoona may be the beginning of the next wave: trying to prevent a situation from developing in the first place.

"We don't have a problem here with immigrants," said Joe Rieker, 40, one of five members of the Altoona City Council who voted in favor of the new ordinance. "But we want to stay ahead of the curve."

When places like Altoona pass such laws, it is a sign of a frustration with the lack of federal immigration enforcement, said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

"We certainly hope we see more towns like Altoona," Mehlman said. "And as the message gets out that there aren't a lot of communities that are welcoming, it will be a deterrent."


'Effective scapegoat'

The legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Pennsylvania, Vic Walczak, worries that a different message is being sent.

"There's a fair bit of politics involved here, and illegal immigrants are an easy and effective scapegoat for a small town's problems," Walczak said.

Altoona has at least one factor in common with Hazleton: Both ordinances were passed after local killings attributed to illegal immigrants.

In Altoona, Miguel Padilla, 27, was convicted in September in the killings of three men outside a nightclub on Aug. 28, 2005.

Though he had moved to a nearby town as a boy and graduated from a local high school, Padilla was an illegal immigrant from Mexico.

Mayor Wayne Hippo and other council members have said the Padilla case had nothing to do with the city's ordinance, which threatens to withdraw the business licenses of employers and rental licenses of landlords who hire or rent to illegal immigrants.

But local residents who support the ordinance said Altoona needed the new law.

"We just had three murders here," said Sandy Serbello, 64, a lifelong resident. "We look at everybody differently now."