Thread: Hispanics rue Hazelton's new rules

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Hispanics rue city's new rules
Hazleton's curbs on illegal immigrants seen as U.S. test case

By John Keilman
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 29, 2006


HAZLETON, Pa. -- The day after illegal immigrants were declared officially unwelcome in this struggling little city, Wyoming Street fell quiet.

It had been a lively downtown strip of bodegas, hair salons and clothing stores patronized by the Hispanics who have poured into town seeking work over the last five years. It was also, some say, a hub of drug-dealing, prostitution and graffiti.

Over the summer, when Hazleton officials created the nation's first ordinance aimed at driving away undocumented residents, thousands of people apparently packed up and left. Much of the crime vanished on Wyoming Street, but so did the customers.

"Some people, even if they're legal, they don't want to come," said Isabel Rubio, 50, who has seen business plunge at the small gift store she has run for eight years. "We are very worried for the future here."

On Wednesday, Hazleton plans to begin enforcing measures that punish landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that employ them. But the edicts have already had a powerful effect, here in this eastern Pennsylvania city and around the country.

Some trustees in the Chicago suburb of Carpentersville want to adopt the same policies, but postponed their introduction earlier this month after 3,000 passionate demonstrators converged on Village Hall.

The Carpentersville proposals and dozens of similar measures nationwide are now on hold, awaiting the conclusion of a legal battle expected to start this week in Pennsylvania. Yet for Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, the verdict is in.

"[Illegal immigration] destroys small cities," he said. "What we're doing is historic. We have found a way for local communities to fight back."

Hazleton, with an estimated population of 31,000, has always been an immigrant town. The Irish, Italians and Eastern Europeans were drawn by work in the nearby coal mines, then by jobs at a huge textile mill that manufactured parachute silk during World War II.

But the anthracite coal industry sputtered to a halt in the 1950s, doomed by the rising use of fuel oil, and the textile mill soon followed. Hazleton's population steadily declined.

In the 1980s, a new stream of immigrants began to arrive. Some were Mexicans who had come to pick crops. Others were Dominicans fleeing the high rents and fast pace of New York City, about 120 miles away.

When the Sept. 11 attacks fractured the New York economy, the trickle became a deluge. Hispanics went from an official count of 1,132 in 2000 to perhaps 10,000 in 2006, according to city officials.

Most came to work in a meat-cutting plant, factories or large warehouses outside town. Others opened businesses.

"The new people revitalized downtown," said Amilcar Arroyo, publisher of the city's Spanish-language newspaper. "There were 65 to 70 Hispanic businesses that opened in Hazleton."



Growth and anxiety

But with the growth came anxiety. The new faces, the crowding at schools and hospitals and the inescapable sound of Spanish jarred many longtime residents.

"My father came here from Czechoslovakia," said Joan DeBias, 67, a tour guide at the Greater Hazleton Historical Society Museum. "He learned English right off the bat. These people don't want to give in for nothing."

Police Chief Robert Ferdinand said street gang members--some of them in the country illegally--began showing up in Hazleton for the first time.

The tension reached a boil May 10. A 14-year-old fired a gun on a playground that afternoon, followed hours later by the murder of a 29-year-old man. Those charged in both cases were undocumented immigrants.

"I've had enough," said Barletta, the mayor. "I don't need to hear any more numbers to know there's a problem that needs to be dealt with in immigration. I can't wait for Washington to build a wall in Mexico."

He crafted an ordinance that imposed $1,000 fines on landlords who rented to illegal immigrants, suspended the business licenses of companies that employed them and required city documents to be printed only in English.

The City Council passed the measure 4-1 on July 13, and a month later, civil liberties and immigration advocates filed suit. While the litigation prevented enforcement, the dramatic impact had been made.

Families moved out in the middle of the night in what city officials say was a rapid exodus of as many as 5,000 people. "For Rent" signs sprang up like dandelions, and an unusual hush fell over the entire city.

Abby Ward was delighted. The 32-year-old owner of a locksmith business on Wyoming Street had just put her building up for sale, saying she was tired of seeing her property vandalized and her customers solicited by prostitutes and drug dealers.

"About the same time the ordinance passed, the whole tone of the street changed," she said one recent afternoon as she scrubbed graffiti from her building. "Virtually overnight, it was a totally different place."

But the main difference, some contend, was an increasingly overt hostility toward Hispanics. Some said landlords refused to rent to them. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission reported a spike in discrimination complaints. A few businesses, bereft of customers, closed.

"There are a lot of legal residents and U.S. citizens who have left because they didn't feel welcome here anymore," said Anna Arias, who has led a campaign against the ordinance. "People feel it is OK to hate."



Preparing for challenges

In September, the city revised the measure on the advice of attorneys, hoping to make it less vulnerable in court.

One change is that every prospective tenant will have to get a permit to rent an apartment.

"Local jurisdictions can't regulate immigration ... [but] local jurisdictions can verify immigration or citizenship status for any purpose allowed by law," said Mike Hethmon of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which helped to write the revisions.

Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, countered that immigration status is often not as clear as city officials presume. "It is a very complex, nuanced system that contains protections against discrimination and arbitrary decision-making," he said. "None of that is built into Hazleton's ordinance."

Some predict that if the measures hold up in court, few Hispanics will want to stay in Hazleton, and the warehouses and factories near town will move away for lack of workers.

But Donna Palermo, president of the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce, said she has heard no complaints from employers. Major corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland and Coca-Cola, she added, recently decided to move in.

Though the conflict seems fated to endure in Hazleton, some take a long view, noting the struggles of earlier immigrants. In the late 19th Century, dozens of Irish and Polish miners who clashed with authorities were hanged or shot.

"It's just going to take a while to get acclimated," said Rudy Espinal, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who went from driving a bread truck in Manhattan to selling real estate in Hazleton. "It's got to happen. It's the law of life--adaptation."

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jkeilman@tribune.com

It is nice to see that their policy on illegals went through. This article just proves that when they skip town, the town has less crime. It is obvious that stores that catered to them and/or their needs would close.
Other cities should take a look at this.

"The new people revitalized downtown," said Amilcar Arroyo, publisher of the city's Spanish-language newspaper. "There were 65 to 70 Hispanic businesses that opened in Hazleton."

No, they were not revitalizing downtown, they were taking over and running everyone that didn't speak Spanish off. Right out of the La Raza play book.

Half of the illegal immigrants instantly got out of town. How effective! I think Congress needs to adopt the Hazelton Ordinance Nationally. Sounds effective.

Dixie

Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, countered that immigration status is often not as clear as city officials presume. "It is a very complex, nuanced system that contains protections against discrimination and arbitrary decision-making," he said

I am so sick of hearing how complicated it is.....BULL......the process of coming to this country legally is complicated......the rest is child-like simplicity.......YOU'RE EITHER HERE LEGALLY OR NOT! Just like you can't be a "little" bit pregnant......you can't be somewhat legal. Everybody that is here legally can PROVE it! SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM??

If people are illegals then they are criminals and should be treated as such.