Judge orders Hazleton to pay $1.4 million in legal costs in immigration case


Lou Barletta, former Hazleton mayor and now U.S. Congressman: “What is legal today in Arizona or Fremont, Nebraska is not legal in Hazleton. That’s unfair, and the U.S. Supreme Court should step in and fix this patchwork of local laws intended to combat illegal immigration." (BILL CLARK / CQ ROLL CALL)


Kent Jackson Of The Hazleton Standard-Speaker
Hazleton's immigration law made national headlines, but it proves costly to city


HAZLETON — The city of Hazleton must pay nearly $1.4 million to civil rights attorneys who thwarted the city's immigration law in federal court, U.S. Judge James Munley ruled Tuesday.

Munley of U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Scranton awarded about half of the $2.84 million that the attorneys sought for the case, which began in 2006 and reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hazleton must pay $1.38 million in fees and $47,594 in costs, Munley said.

The cost of a court battle was one reason why the American Civil Liberties Union and Latino Justice PRLDEF warned the financially troubled city not to enact the law.

"Hazleton knew and its politicians knew all along that if they were sued and lost, there would be a bill to pay at the end," said Omar Jadwat, an ACLU attorney assigned to the case.

Hazleton's law penalized companies that hired immigrants who lacked legal status to work in the country and landlords whose tenants lacked legal residency status.

In addition to the ACLU and Latino Justice, formerly called the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, lawyers from the Philadelphia office of the Cozen O'Connor law firm and the Community Justice Project also helped challenge the law.

The 2007 trial that ed Munley to strike down the law and appeals to a circuit court and the Supreme Court received international attention. The case also gave Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta a national profile that helped him win the congressional seat he now holds.

Barletta proposed the law, modeled after one drafted but never approved in San Bernardino, Calif., in the spring of 2006. He pushed for the law after a Hazleton man was murdered in a case for which two immigrants later were deported, but not tried and 15-year-old immigrant was arrested for shooting a gun in a separate incident at a playground.

City council approved the first of several versions of the immigration law soon afterward.

Then Councilman Joseph Yannuzzi, now mayor, supported the law at the time.

"We felt we were right. We still feel we are right. Of course, they don't agree with us," Yannuzzi said.

He hopes to negotiate to spread out the repayment to lessen the strain on the city's budget. Munley's ruling makes the payment due on Jan. 15, 2016 so the two sides have until then to agreement on terms. Munley said in the ruling that a payment schedule could be worked out between both parties.

At the 2007 trial at which Munley presided, the city's attorneys presented evidence that immigrants who weren't authorized to be in the country strained the budgets of the city's government, schools and hospital.

Barletta testified to violent crimes that occurred and said the costs increased for police investigations and overtime.

Attorneys challenging the city, however, pointed out that the police force shrunk as the city's population increased. Vic Walczak of the ACLU said of the 8,571 crimes had occurred between 2001 and 2006 in Hazleton, 20 involved immigrants with questionable status. Of the 428 violent crimes that occurred in that span, immigrants committed two or three, Walczak said.

Munley struck down the provisions relating to landlords and businesses so the law never took effect.

After listening to further arguments in 2008, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld Munley's ruling in 2010.

A year later, the Supreme Court asked the Philadelphia court to reconsider, based on a ruling that upheld a law in Arizona that had similarities to Hazleton.

The Philadelphia court stuck to its original decision, however, and the case died in 2014 when the Supreme Court declined further involvement.

Barletta said Hazleton would have won its case in circuits outside of Philadelphia.

"What is legal today in Arizona or Fremont, Nebraska is not legal in Hazleton. That's unfair, and the U.S. Supreme Court should step in and fix this patchwork of local laws intended to combat illegal immigration," Barletta said.

Jadwat, however, said the Hazleton case helped create a pattern from the patchwork.

"One thing clear for a long time now, partially because of this case and also because of other cases, is that the path Hazleton chose to go down … is not a path open to cities," he said.

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworl...007-story.html