Thread: Local laws aimed at illegals are not totally irrational

http://www.mcall.com/all-5localaug20,0,6597882.column

Local laws aimed at illegals are not totally irrational

Paul Carpenter
Before vitriol sweeps away all reason, it might be helpful to separate two issues raised by Hazleton's ordinance targeting illegal immigrants, and the copycat proposals in Allentown and elsewhere.

In both Hazleton and Allentown, the measures seek to punish employers who hire illegals or landlords who rent to them. Allentown's plan was drafted by Councilman Louis Hershman, but has languished for the lack of a second by anyone else on council.

Even if such provisions were viable, and even if not motivated by bigotry, they clearly violate a vital principle. Immigration is the domain of the federal government and not of cities. (What's next? Is Hershman going to draft an ordinance to have Allentown declare war on Zimbabwe?)

I have long excoriated violations of constitutional principles, which often work the other way — with the federal government usurping state or local prerogatives in flagrant disregard of the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

Every step in that direction takes us closer to tyranny, but the converse is no better.

When it comes to the motives for such city proposals, I only suspect bigotry, but I am positive about the domain issue. Either way, sanctions involving immigration, in local ordinances, are indefensible.

Both the Hazleton and the Allentown measures, however, also deal with another issue not so easy to dismiss.

Each establishes English as the city's official language. That is no trivial matter; some government bodies spend a lot of taxpayer money to accommodate people who do not understand English, so the impact of avoiding that practice could be significant.

There is no federal-local clash here; there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution to prohibit a city from deciding whether one set of residents must subsidize a decision by another set to refuse to assimilate. (''Do we advance people by making it easier to be isolated and ignorant of the common language?'' I asked in 2004.)

The truly unfortunate part of the language debate is that only one language, Spanish, is usually involved in demands that a language other than English be accommodated.

There are parts of the Lehigh Valley area where German is the most widely spoken language other than English. There are communities in Florida where it's Greek, there are some in Louisiana where it's Cajun French, and there are parts of Hawaii where it's Japanese, which is my family's second language.

I should be deeply insulted if anyone said that people who speak Japanese, and only those who speak Japanese, are somehow incapable of learning the common language and therefore must be subsidized by other taxpayers not so inept.

That, in essence, is what people convey when they suggest that individuals who speak Spanish are incapable of learning English. It is totally beyond me why all Hispanics are not enraged by that insult.

If Spanish is to be accommodated — if money is taken from taxpayers by force to print documents in Spanish or to pay the salaries of duplicate teachers in public schools, etc. — then it has to be done for all minority languages.

I'd like to see, for example, someone not of Greek descent who is willing to pay for printing all the official documents in Tarpon Springs, Fla., in Greek as well as in English. If you are willing to toss in a few hundred dollars to do that, step right up. I'll see that your money is forwarded to the appropriate municipality.

Until all minority languages are accommodated (and I think such a policy would represent madness), there can be no rational justification for the public to subsidize a single class of individuals who do not care to learn English, no matter how politically correct that seems to some people.

paul.carpenter@mcall.com 610-820-6176

Until all minority languages are accommodated (and I think such a policy would represent madness), there can be no rational justification for the public to subsidize a single class of individuals who do not care to learn English, no matter how politically correct that seems to some people

Amen to that.