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INVASION USA
Obama calls Hazleton ruling 'a victory for all Americans'
Judge blocked terrorized town's response to drugs, crime, violence caused by illegals--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: July 29, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern



© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com




Even as Sen. Barack Obama found himself under fire from the Hillary Clinton campaign over what she called his "naive" intention to meet with leaders of countries hostile to the U.S., the presidential hopeful praised the recent court decision overturning one city's attempt to protect itself from hostile foreigners filling their streets with drugs, crime and gangs as "a victory for all Americans."

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Munley overturned Hazleton, Pa.'s "Illegal Immigration Relief Act" in a 206-page opinion that declared states and municipalities have no authority to stem illegal immigration.

As WND reported, Hazleton passed an ordinance July 13, 2006, to deter housing owners from renting to illegals in an effort to reduce the crime and drain on city services associated with a large influx of illegal immigrants.

Hazleton Mayor Louis J. Barletta, an immigrant's grandson who pushed for the strict laws last summer after two illegals were charged in a fatal shooting, said he wanted to make his town of 30,000 "the toughest place on illegal immigrants in America."

"What I'm doing here is protecting the legal taxpayer of any race," he told the Washington Post. "And I will get rid of the illegal people. It's this simple: They must leave."

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Not so fast, ruled the court, denying Hazleton – and other cities that followed its lead, some legal experts suggest – the ability to police a problem the federal government has refused to address.

"Even if federal law did not conflict with Hazleton's measures, the city could not enact an ordinance that violates rights the Constitution guarantees to every person in the United States, whether legal resident or not," Munley wrote.

Munley also wrote that Hazleton's law was at odds with current federal immigration policy, which he said avoids "excessive enforcement" against illegals so as not to jeopardize foreign relations. Hazleton, he said, failed to consider "the implications of the ordinances on foreign policy."

And Obama, in a statement issued by his campaign this week, agreed. “The anti-immigrant law passed by Mayor Barletta was unconstitutional and unworkable – and it underscores the need for comprehensive immigration reform so local communities do not continue to take matters into their own hands,â€