July 4, 2007
No more talk of immigration proposal

By Ben Lefebvre STAFF WRITER

CARPENTERSVILLE -- Village President Bill Sarto announced that residents no longer would be allowed to formally address trustees about the proposed Illegal Alien Immigration Relief Ordinance at village board meetings.

Saying that the proposal introduced by Trustees Paul Humpfer and Judith Sigwalt in September was only a draft that village officials had not formally approved, Sarto declared at Tuesday's village board meeting that the proposal "null and void" and the issue unrelated to village business.

"It didn't go through proper procedure," he said. "This ordinance doesn't really exist. This shouldn't have been tabled, shouldn't have been discussed, shouldn't even have been brought up. There should be no more discussion on an ordinance that doesn't exist.

"The public that comes to discuss this are out of order," he added. "We have no village business that has to do with illegal immigration."

The proposal, if passed, would allow the village to penalize businesses and landlords that deal with illegal immigrants. The board in October voted to table discussion of the draft until the courts resolved the lawsuit against Hazleton, Pa., which passed similar legislation in July. But the proposal and the illegal immigration issue have dominated Carpentersville politics for the past nine months.

Sarto himself placed the proposal on the past three board meeting agendas in the hope of having trustees eventually vote it down.

Village Attorney James Rhodes agreed with Sarto, saying the draft proposal "never got that far" to be considered official village business.

"It's not a matter of censorship," Rhodes said. "It's a matter of when debate is proper."

Village trustees were unavailable for response before press time Tuesday.

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