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Archdiocese helps families flee Valley Park over immigration law
By Stephen Deere
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
08/17/2006

VALLEY PARK

The Archdiocese of St. Louis has helped relocate more than 20 families who have fled the city out of fear they may be deported or evicted from their homes under a new law aimed at illegal immigrants.

Many of those families were staying at the Cheryl Lane Apartments, in the northeast section of the city, and left in such a panic that they didn't take furniture with them, said James Zhang, the complex's owner.

Last week, Zhang had his apartment manager go door-to-door, telling people that if they weren't in the country legally, they needed to move out. Under the city's new ordinance, landlords face fines of $500 per violation for knowingly renting to illegal immigrants.Advertisement
Zhang noted that the fine was more than his apartments' monthly rent of $450.

Of his 48 units, 20 are now empty, Zhang said.

The archdiocese's Hispanic Ministry has helped some of the families move and find new places, and has even provided rent money, said Hector Molina, the ministry's director. Most families have mixed citizenship status, Molina said, meaning some members are in the country legally while others are not. He would not say where the families have relocated.

"This came out of the blue," Molina said of Valley Park's law, passed July 17. "For local governments to jump the gun, to do something like this, is dangerous. It's reckless."

The Catholic Church is against illegal immigration, but Valley Park's law is inhumane, Molina said. The archdiocese, he said, had to step in.

The city's new law claims that illegal immigration leads to higher crime rates and overcrowded classrooms, destroys neighborhoods and diminishes the quality of life. In addition to fines for landlords, it imposes penalties on businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

The city passed the ordinance not because Valley Park has experienced widespread problems with illegal immigration, but as a "preventive measure," Mayor Jeffery Whitteaker has said.

Valley Park is one of a handful of cities across the country that have passed similar laws. On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund sued the city of Hazleton, Pa., over its ordinance. The suit, filed in federal court, claims the city lacks the authority to regulate immigration and that the law violates immigrants' civil rights.

Of the cities that have passed the ordinances, Valley Park is among the first to begin enforcing it, said Anthony Rothert, legal director for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri.

Since the law was enacted, Whitteaker said, he has received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from across the nation, nearly all of them expressing support for the law.

As for the families who have fled, Whitteaker said he was glad to hear illegal immigrants were leaving the city.

But landlords say they do not have the expertise to verify documents establishing legal residency and that they risk being sued for discrimination if they ask too many questions.