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  1. #1
    Senior Member zeezil's Avatar
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    KY: Immigrant housing trial starts

    Immigrant housing trial starts
    Lexington landlord accused of harboring illegal aliens
    By Brandon Ortiz And Linda Niemi
    BORTIZ@HERALD-LEADER.COM

    As William Jerry Hadden's attorneys see it, the federal government is singling out their client to send a message to landlords: Don't rent to illegal immigrants.

    Hadden, 69, goes on trial Monday on 24 counts of harboring illegal aliens and 24 counts of encouraging illegal immigrants to remain in the country. Hadden and his son, Jamey, who is in Vietnam, rented to 60 undocumented immigrants at the Woodridge and Cross Keys apartments in Lexington's Cardinal Valley.

    The case is being closely watched by Central Kentucky landlords, and could have ramifications in the national crackdown on illegal immigration.

    This is not the first time Lexington landlords have had their eyes on the Woodridge Apartments on Alexandria Drive.

    In 1968, the buildings, then known as the Capri Apartments, were the backdrop for a significant civil rights lawsuit. A Lexington IBM engineer sued the apartments' owner, which back then was Morris L. Levy & Son Inc., because it would not rent to him because he was black.

    Leroy Cort's lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Lexington was the first of its kind in Kentucky. It relied on a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., from earlier that year.

    Cort prevailed and was allowed to rent the apartment of his choice, according to the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights' report for that year.

    Cort's case and another like his that summer sent a message to landlords.

    "They opened up apartments to African-American professionals," said Robert A. Sedler, the civil rights lawyer who represented Cort.

    The federal government's prosecutions of the Haddens sends a very different message to landlords, said Aaron Hutson, an advocate for immigrant rights. He says it shows just how much the political winds have changed since the 1960s.

    Particularly since 9/11, the country has grown more nationalist and anti-foreigner, he said.

    "I think it is easier to deny rights to someone when they're painted as an 'other,'" said Hutson, of the Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant Rights. "It is like it is OK to deny housing to these people because they're not American."

    Fair housing

    In 1967, the Fayette Fiscal Court enacted a fair housing law, making Lexington the first Southern city of substantial size to have one.

    The law allowed discrimination victims to take their cases to administrative proceedings. The county would act only if it could not mediate the conflict.

    But a landmark 1968 Supreme Court ruling allowed victims to skip the administrative proceedings, go directly to court, and "bang, bang, it was over," Sedler said.

    Cort had twice been denied an apartment at Capri. But three white "testers," including a colleague at IBM, had been offered apartments.

    Cort filed suit in July 1968. Sedler asserted that the apartments would not rent to blacks until every other complex in Lexington had at least one.

    One of the complex's shareholders testified at a hearing that "it's only equitable that others have Negroes," according to an Aug. 3, 1968, story in The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

    The case was settled in September 1968.

    Bending the law?

    Hadden faces more than 60 counts, including two charges of conspiracy, 24 counts of harboring illegal immigrants, 24 counts of encouraging illegal immigrants to remain in the country, five counts of money laundering, five counts of conducting illegal transactions to affect interstate commerce and 10 counts of aiding and abetting illegal immigrants.

    If convicted, Hadden faces decades in prison and the possible loss of the apartments.

    Advocates for immigrants have said they fear that the Hadden case will have a spillover effect that hurts all Hispanic Americans in the Bluegrass State.

    They also claim that the government is twisting the intent of the law. Advocates say harboring laws were intended to target human traffickers or employers who are trying to hide their work forces.

    They note it is not illegal to rent to illegal immigrants. The Haddens had no legal obligation to check any tenant's immigration status. And laws passed in other cities prohibiting landlords from renting to illegal immigrants have been blocked in court.

    The feds "took that law, and they bent it," Hutson said. "We cannot understand why they charged these people with this harboring law. It just doesn't make sense to us."

    The case has been widely discussed in the Lexington real estate business, said Don Schilling, owner of Prudential Commercial Real Estate.

    "It is a problem for everyone that is in the business," he said.

    Schilling said that landlords aren't qualified to enforce federal immigration law. Not only that, but they must be mindful not to run afoul of fair housing laws. It also presents problems for landlords if they learn that one of their tenants is undocumented. Will the landlord get prosecuted if he does not evict illegal immigrants, Schilling asks?

    "As long as they're paying their rent and they're being a good tenant, you have no right to evict them," Schilling said.

    Comprehensive scheme?

    For all the scorn the case has received from landlords and civil libertarians, it has been hailed on conservative and anti-illegal immigration blogs.

    "It is obvious by the actions of the landlord to hire illegals to rent to the illegals was a part of a comprehensive scheme of criminal behavior that went hand in glove with the local sanctuary city government and courts that refuse to comply with the rule of law," Lexington activist Mark Lowry wrote in an e-mail to local news media and government officials.

    Prosecutors will have to prove that the Haddens knew the tenants were here illegally, yet rented to them anyway. They must also prove that Hadden attempted to conceal, harbor, or shield the tenants from detection.

    The evidence in the court record thus far shows that the tenants showed only Mexican IDs to apply for the apartments. But the applications were processed by a manager, who, according to the indictment, was also undocumented.

    All but one of U.S. District Judge Karl Forester's major rulings in the case have favored the defendants. He will allow the defense to present testimony from four tenants that the Haddens had nothing to do with their entry into the country, and did not help them find jobs. Hadden had limited contact with the tenants, they testified in depositions.

    Jurors will learn that the tenants said they could come and go from the apartments as they please, and they were not aware of the Haddens doing anything to hide them from authorities.

    Forester ruled last week that Hadden can use his ignorance of the law as a defense.

    The only significant ruling thus far siding with prosecutors was an order prohibiting the defense to call an expert witness, who was to testify that it is difficult to determine someone's legal status.

    At a recent court hearing, Forester seemed skeptical of the government's case.

    "So if Kroger is selling groceries to illegal immigrants, technically they could be as culpable as Mr. Hadden?" Forester asked.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Frances Catron-Malone said there is case law defining "shielding" to mean to substantially help an undocumented worker reside in the United States.

    Catron-Malone called the grocery example "ridiculous."

    It's "a way-out-there example that I propose would never come to fruition," she said.
    http://www.kentucky.com/211/story/441166.html
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  2. #2
    Senior Member vmonkey56's Avatar
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    After you take everything they owns put them in jail for at least ten years.
    Set a BIG example! Illegal Immigrant housing; Do the crime, do the time.
    Would a Real ID have helped, instead of Mexico ID, didn't he check anything, even the employment records?Now, go get the employers who hired these illegal aliens, too.

    So the next time I don't see the speed limit sign I should say. truly I did not see the sign? And not knowing the speed limit will get me off for sure.

    Don't submit our annual taxes and say, I do not understand the system.
    Sounding better and better.....What else!

    Give others TB, oh! Didn't know this would happen, even after being to the doctor. Nice to play stupid all the time.

    JUDY: WONDERFUL PUT!
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    Hope they're convicted, sentenced to the max and the courts uphold our immigration laws.

    GO FEDS!!

    Every landlord asks for a social security number and runs a credit check on every American before they rent to them.

    To treat non-Americans differently and rent to them without valid social security numbers and credit checks is UNequal protection under the law. These landlords are requiring a higher standard for Americans than illegal aliens. That is UNfair, UNequal and ILlegal.

    Shut Them Down!
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  4. #4
    Senior Member lccat's Avatar
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    Maybe I'm wrong but it seems that the Lexington H-L does NOT allow comments on their PRO-ILLEGAL and PRO OPEN BORDERS "articles" but do allow comments on most other articles!

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