Thread: Group's campaign targets employers, landlords of illegal imm

http://www.western-star.com/n/content/o ... nside.html

Group's campaign targets employers, landlords of illegal immigrants
Citizens for Legal Communities will address Springboro, Mason city councils.
By Lawrence Budd

Staff Writer

Monday, January 22, 2007

SPRINGBORO — Harriet Tucker seems an unlikely advocate for immigration reform.

Yet the 75-year-old antiques dealer is responsible for bringing this national issue to the floor of Springboro City Council chambers.

"She started the whole ball rolling," said Bill Barnhill, a founding member of Citizens for Legal Communities, the Warren County-based group bent on convincing local communities to crack down on employers or landlords of illegal immigrants.

Tucker, who says she cherishes her Norwegian roots, contacted her neighbor, Springboro Mayor John Agenbroad, on behalf of the group, scheduled to appear before the council on Feb. 15.

"It's a tricky issue," Tucker conceded, after recounting media accounts of bankrupt hospitals and overcrowded schools along the Mexican border as a result of the influx of immigrants.

Still, Tucker congratulated the group for joining a movement pushing for changes in more than 60 local communities across the country.

A coalition of groups sued Hazelton, Pa., over passage of its Illegal Immigration Relief Act, under which landlords face $1,000 fines for each illegal immigrant in their rentals. A federal judge has granted a temporary injunction, barring it from going to effect, but the case is pending.

In Farmer's Branch, Texas, residents will consider a local initiative in May validating a similar law already in effect there, despite legal challenges. A legal challenge has also been mounted against a California community enacting immigration laws.

"I don't really care," Judi Lehman said, when presented with questions raised about the laws advocated by the Citizens for Legal Communities.

Lehman, Barnhill and about 10 others comprise the group's membership, but County Sheriff Tom Ariss and County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel have expressed support and attended meetings designed to raise public awareness.

Frustrated in appeals to local representatives in Congress and the Ohio legislature, the group has refocused on local governments. It unveils this new strategy tonight for the City Council in Mason, where the last two murder cases have involved illegal immigrants.

In 2001, Jesus Plasencia, 19, of Mexico, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stabbing a Mexican co-worker to death in an August 2000 argument at their apartment in Mason.

Citizens for Legal Communities was formed after the stabbing death of Kevin C. Barnhill, a well-known former athlete at Little Miami High School.

Barnhill, 27, of Mason, was last seen alive on Aug. 26, being chased behind the Mason Pub, moments before he was alledgedly stabbed to death.

Police say Barnhill had fought earlier that night with Jose N. Mota, 40, of Mexico, charged in connection with Barnhill's death, along with his brother, Humberto Mota, 30, and Enrique Torres, 36, also both Mexican citizens.

Neither Torres, still on the loose, or the Motas, who are in custody, have Social Security numbers or any documents allowing them to legally live or work in the U.S., authorities said. However, they all were living in a rental on Tylersville Road in Mason, and Jose Mota was employed by a Fairfield roofing company, court records show.

Barnhill's grieving parents started a scholarship fund and convinced the Cincinnati Reds to join them in upgrading local sports fields in their son's name.

They joined the citizen's group after a call from Lehman, a clerk in the County Sheriff's office whose frustration with illegal immigrants in the legal system was piqued by the Barnhill case.

Some landlords and business owners worry the proposed laws will create problems for them and conflict with federal laws limiting their inquiries of prospective employers and tenants.

They run the risk of violating other federal laws that prohibit discrimination, said Charles Tassell, director of government affairs for the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky & Southern Ohio Apartment Association.

"That's the kind of place between a rock and a hard place we're in," Tassel said.

State Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, said he or another lawmaker would be reintroducing a bill like one he proposed in the last session aimed at improving Ohio's immigration laws. But Seitz said the legislation was unlikely to include provisions sought by the citizens group due to concerns about enforcement and preemption by federal immigration law.

Barnhill supports other provisions of immigration bills proposed by Seitz and other Ohio lawmakers, while pursuing the group's agenda at the local level.

"We need to talk with people we are closer to," he said, counting about eight communities around the U.S. with similar laws.

At the same time, the group hopes that, with heightened public awareness, a petition drive will lead to a statewide vote.

"Ultimately what we want to do is get an initiative on the ballot," Barnhill said.

I wish there were more people like them. It has to be done as we are the ones who suffer as we pay their way, become victims of their crimes, and have a lower quality of life due to them. Unfortunately this could never happen in Miami as too many politicians are Hispanic and if you attack the illegals they see it as a threat to fellow Hispanics.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... 1056/COL02

Group wants tougher immigrant rules
BY JESSICA BROWN | JLBROWN@ENQUIRER.COM
MASON – City Council will be asked tonight to pass laws that would discourage illegal immigrants from living or working here.

Citizens for Legal Communities, a Warren County-based organization seeking to strengthen local immigration laws, will address council tonight.

The group's leader, William Barnhill, said he will ask council to consider:


--- A criminal ordinance that would make it illegal to harbor, rent or lease residential properties and hotel space to illegal immigrants.

--- Legislation that would penalize employers for failing to do federal immigration checks on employees.

--- Making illegal immigrants who are criminally charged repay any court costs they incurred for indigent defense or interpreter costs.

The group will also encourage council members to petition their state legislators for immigration reform. Barnhill says he plans to eventually address other Warren County governments as well.

Mason Mayor Charlene Pelfrey said the city is already being proactive on the illegal immigration issue and is open to any information Barnhill can offer.

Barnhill, of Hamilton Township, formed the group last year after his son, Kevin Barnhill, was stabbed to death outside of a Mason bar. The suspects, who are awaiting trial, are believed to be illegal immigrants, according to police.

Immigration has been a hot subject in the region. Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, who has attracted national attention for his outspoken stance against illegal immigration, last month announced his deputies will be the first in the Midwest to receive training from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The training would allow them to enforce federal immigration laws. Warren County leaders have expressed interest in having some of their law officers similarly trained. Law officers may have an update on that issue tonight.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. in at the Mason administration building, 6000 Mason Montgomery Road.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... /701220402

Monday, January 22, 2007
Mason studies its immigration policy
BY JESSICA BROWN | JLBROWN@ENQUIRER.COM
MASON - City Council here agreed Monday to let its safety committee investigate if the city can create local ordinances to crack down on illegal immigration.

At the same time, the city Police Department and the Warren County Sheriff's Office announced they may seek federal immigration training for their officers.

The moves come about five months after Mason resident Kevin Barnhill, 27, was stabbed to death outside a Mason bar, allegedly at the hands of at least one illegal immigrant. It was the city's first homicide since 2000. Barnhill's father, William Barnhill, helped found Citizens for Legal Communities, a Warren County group seeking to strengthen local immigration enforcement.

The group's primary concern is the increase in violent crime it says illegal immigrants bring to the community - and the lack of enforcement power for local authorities. Monday night, the group asked council to consider creating several immigration ordinances including:

Making it illegal to harbor, rent or lease residential properties and hotel space for use as an accommodation for an illegal immigrant.

Requiring employers to use a federal online system to verify that workers are eligible for public benefits.

Requiring illegal immigrants who are criminally charged to repay court costs incurred for indigent defense or interpreters.

The group also encouraged council members to petition state legislators for immigration reform. It wants local law enforcement to have authority to prosecute illegal immigrants.

The group will make the same suggestions to other Warren County communities.

Only a handful of towns across the country - and none so far in Ohio - have enacted or are considering local laws to deter immigrants from living or working there. The practice has spurred at least one lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.

In neighboring Butler County, Sheriff Richard Jones last month announced 10 of his deputies will be the first in the Midwest to receive training from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The training would allow deputies to enforce federal immigration laws - something the ACLU and the Butler County Community Alliance worry will spur racial profiling.

Warren County Sheriff Tom Ariss and Mason Police Chief Ron Ferrell said they want to follow Jones' lead.

Council members had mixed opinions. Some were surprised that local law officers have no immigration enforcement power. They requested more information on ICE training.

Councilman Steve Osborne said the city of about 30,000 is open to finding solutions.

"I for one strongly support any of these things that our law director felt is appropriate," he said. "This is something I feel strongly about."

Others questioned the legality of enacting immigration laws.

"By and large this area of law is pre-empted by the federal law," said Councilman Tom Grossmann, an attorney. "I think our hands are substantially tied."

Barnhill contended that there are ways to do it that don't conflict with federal law.

The ACLU said enacting local laws like the ones being discussed in Mason is the wrong way to solve the problem for several reasons.

"They're probably illegal and unconstitutional," said Jeff Gamso, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio.

He also said the laws would present a hardship for landlords and employers who aren't trained in the intricacies of ferreting out immigration violations.

"They put those who have to comply with them in an impossible position," he said. "It's oppressive and time consuming and beyond their ability and illegal."

Gamso said such laws are the wrong way to deal with a crime problem.

"A horrible crime was committed allegedly by one or two people who are undocumented. The conclusion that we can prevent crime by keeping undocumented people out of Mason is fanciful," he said. "It's simply not true."