Valley Park changes strategy on illegal immigrants

By Stephen Deere
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

07/24/2007

VALLEY PARK — The city has abandoned efforts to enforce an ordinance that targets landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, but it will still fight to keep one that prohibits employers from giving them jobs.

For months, the city of 6,500 has wrestled with the costs of defending itself in three lawsuits challenging the ordinances. Thus far, the suits have cost the city more than $80,000.

On July 16, for the second time in five months, the Board of Aldermen voted to repeal parts of its housing code that denied occupancy permits to landlords renting to illegal immigrants.

Mayor Jeffery Whitteaker had vetoed earlier legislation, but this past week decided to sign it. Advertisement

Whitteaker did not return phone messages seeking comment.

Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor who is working for Valley Park, said the mayor's actions reflected a change in legal strategy, "not a concession."

Kobach said the city still plans to fight a lawsuit in federal court that challenges Valley Park's right to have an ordinance prohibiting the employment of illegal immigrants.

Kobach accused the American Civil Liberties Union and attorneys from the Bryan Cave law firm of trying to "bankrupt a small town" with a barrage of lawsuits.

"It's a typical strategy for the ACLU," he said, adding that it was less costly for the city to fight for the employment ordinance.

Valley Park landlords have complained that they have no expertise in determining who is in the country illegally and that they could not follow the city's ordinance. They've also said that the ordinance could lead them to discriminate against Hispanic tenants to avoid being penalized.

Florence Streeter, a Valley Park landlord and plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, called the development a victory.

"We are no longer put in a position where we have to discriminate," she said.

sdeere@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8116

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