Thread: Cities ready to get tough with illegals?

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/ci_4014185

Cities ready to get tough with illegals?

By Jonathan Graham
Sentinel & Enterprise

Lou Barletta, the mayor of Hazelton, Pa., said he saw all of the problems caused by illegal immigration in his city of 31,000 people and knew he had to act.

"I just can't sit back and wait any longer for someone else to help," Barletta said.

Barletta accused illegal immigrants of committing crimes, joining gangs and scribbling graffiti in his city, which he said grew from 23,000 people since 2000.

Hazelton is ready to enact new ordinances which would fine landlords of illegal immigrants $1,000, revoke business licenses of companies that employ illegal immigrants and make English the city's official language.

He said the biggest problem is illegal immigrants using city services without paying taxes, and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency simply not having enough manpower to deal with the problem.

"Every time an illegal immigrant is involved in a domestic incident, a traffic accident, every noise complaint, every time we send our fire department or our code enforcement officer, it's our tax dollars being spent," Barletta said.

The mayor said smaller cities are particularly poorly equipped to deal with the problem.

"... So as we stumble across illegals here, we're going to punish businesses who hire them and landlords who rent to them," Barletta said. "And you know what, it already has worked."

Barletta said the city is not sending out its police department to round up illegal immigrants.

It is simply using an ordinance that discourages illegal immigrants from moving to the city.

"If the business or landlords want to roll the dice, that's certainly their choice, but the penalty's pretty severe," Barletta said.

Too tough?

But Leominster at-large councilor Dennis Rosa cautioned against using Hazelton's approach here, saying it would breed animosity between city officials and the Latino community.

Still, Rosa believes illegal immigrants are a "burden for the American people," because they use local government services.

"It's just something that everybody's aware of and its come to a fever pitch, and something has to be done," Rosa said.

He support's Gov. Mitt Romney's plan to allow state police officers to arrest illegal immigrants, but doesn't like Hazelton's approach.

"I don't want to see a knee-jerk reaction, I'd rather see action on a federal level ... and see it trickle down," Rosa said.

He said he also understands that some illegal immigrants want a chance to work hard and integrate into America society.

"It's up to each community, now if you were the city of Boston, I think you should (initiate local anti-illegal immigration ordinances)," Rosa said.

Fitchburg police "query" anyone they suspect may be an illegal immigrant, said Capt. Phillip J. Kearns.

"Once in a great while we'll get a response that they're illegal," Kearns said.

He said it is then up to federal agents to then come pick up the suspect.

Kearns said police do not view illegal immigrants as a large source of the city's crime.

"We bump into a fair amount of people not legally in the country, but not all of them are causing problems," Kearns said.

Schools and hospitals are not allowed to ask about a person's residency status, officials said.

ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier said there are 5,600 immigration agents working nationwide, but said she could not say how many work in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

She also said there are no estimates of illegal immigrants in any particular region.

Fitchburg Police Chief Edward Cronin said in an interview earlier this month that a strong enforcement approach to illegal immigrants would unnecessarily divide the local community.

But Ward 4 City Councilor Ted DeSalvatore says any program that addresses illegal immigration should be considered by the city.

"We are getting overwhelmed in this city," DeSalvatore said, quoting a statistic that there are 6,000 illegal immigrants in the Twin Cities area.

DeSalvatore said the Hazelton approach interested him -- especially the designation of English as an official city language -- but he did not know what kind of response it would get from residents.

"(Barletta's) got the right initiative, and the politics of this city would probably reject it," DeSalvatore said.

"On the other hand, I'm open to my phone ringing off the hook by someone who would like to see it pushed," he added.

Fitchburg Mayor Dan H. Mylott declined to comment on the issue.

Fitchburg Ward 1 Councilor David Clark said he liked the idea of protecting local jobs for citizens and legal immigrants.

"Maybe if what they're trying to do is muddy the welcome-mat a little bit, maybe that's something we should look at," Clark said.

But Clark said he understood the difficulties immigrants have in getting visas to come into the country legally.

"My point would be that many people may be flippant toward this issue, but when you sit down with a real person who has these real problems you think ... about how difficult it must be to try to become a citizen," Clark said.

Fitchburg At-large Councilor Stephen DiNatale said local officials shouldn't have to deal with the issue.

"In a normal course of a police officer's duty, that someone is apprehended and committing a crime, and found to be an undocumented alien, let the Immigration and Custom Enforcement people deal with it," DiNatale said. "That's their job."

"We've got other issues that need to be addressed in Fitchburg that go beyond the immigration problem," he said.

Barletta, the mayor of Hazelton, Penn., said he just wanted to take action on what he views as a moral problem.

"I don't understand how anyone would condone illegals that snuck into the country and would use taxpayer's money," Barletta said. "The illegals are simply not welcome here. There is no gray area for me."

I agree 100%. More cities and towns, counties, etc. need to follow suit of the mayor of Hazelton.....I believe if we go after the employers and the landlords..... well it would not be long till they would not be welcome anywhere in the US...
Fed up in
Lafayette, La a

Hats off to Mayor Barletta! Please keep up the fight.
The program of Hazlton will bring about a "domino affect" throughout the nation.
Keep up the good work!

I wish people would stop trying to coddle law breakers. I don't care what ethnic background they come from illegal is illegal! Why do people keep saying they don't want to offend the the hispanic people?! Why do people want to stand up for lawbreakers! If your illegal your illegal and many hispanics are angry the illegal are here too!! Stop making it a race issue! It's a law breaking issue!!

God bless Mayor Barletta for standing up for the law of the land and enforcing it!!

Don't forget that in Houston the police have been told by a judge to either enforce the laws or lose federal funding. And in Arizona, a sheriff is tossing illegals into jail and making them listen to American patriotic songs about 4 times a day.