2007: Immigration top story
Sunday, 30 December 2007
By L.A. TARONE
Staff Writer
Immigration continued to give Hazleton a national face in 2007.

And the issue was voted the year’s top news story of the Hazleton area by the Standard-Speaker staff.
With Congress still tied up over the issue, Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act generated both nationwide interest and several copycats.
The law penalized businesses that hire illegals and landlords who rent to them. It was controversial from its inception, and as soon as it was formalized by city council, a consortium of groups – including the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union – filed suit to have it overturned.
U.S. District Court Judge James Munley in July struck the law down. In his 206-page opinion, Munley ruled that the law violated the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The sides reacted as expected.
“It is a first-rate opinion,â€