Thread: The Most Racist City in America: Hazleton, PA

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The Most Racist City in America: Hazleton, PA

La Prensa San Diego, Editorial, Daniel Muñoz, Jul 28, 2006

On July 12th, the Hazleton, Pennsylvania City Council voted to approve an Illegal Immigration Relief Act, creating one of the strictest anti-immigrant laws in the United States. This Relief Act will impose severe penalties on landlords who rent space to illegal immigrants, suspend the licenses of businesses that employ them and declared English the city’s official language.

The law will require anyone seeking to rent in the city to apply for a residency license and submit to an investigation of citizenship status. Landlords found renting to people without licenses will be fined $1,000 a day. Business owners found hiring, renting property to or providing goods and services to illegal immigrants will lose their business permit for five years on a first offense and 10 years on a second.

The motivation behind this, according to Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, is “the loss of the quality of life.” All pretenses have been cast off and the real reasons surrounding the immigration debate are out in the open. Now, maybe we can start to talk about the real issues that are behind what is driving this divisive discussion on immigration. We ask: What is really scaring white America?

Hazleton is a non-descript mining town in Pennsylvania that has seen better days. The Hispanic population has quickly grown to represent 30 percent of the city’s population of 31,000 (up from a low of 23,000). Hispanics are pumping vitality back into this city. But the older white population feels threatened. They believe they are slowly losing their grip on power and are not able to keep up with the younger Hispanic population.

The mayor of Hazleton is using the oft-repeated polarizing imagery of a crime wave that he says is growing with the rising Hispanic population. This image has been used in San Diego since the days of then County Supervisor Susan Golding. But, much like Golding, Mayor Tarantino has no facts or figures to back up his claim. In fact, according to the Pennsylvania State Police there has been a reduction in the number of total arrests in the city. But the mayor wouldn’t let the facts get in the way of a good political slogan.

What is happening in Hazleton is a microcosm of what is happening across our country: the white population is afraid to give up power to a growing Hispanic population.

The debate on the U.S.-Mexican border, in San Diego and other impacted border regions, is not so much about drugs, crime, or terrorism. It is about how they, the white community, can keep brown faces from coming into their neighborhoods. How can they keep control and power while the Hispanic community continues to grow?

On July 27, the New Jersey town of Riverside followed the lead of Hazleton, banning the hiring and housing of undocumented immigrants. The California town of Escondido is considering taking a similar action.

Hazleton is now being viewed as an example for other towns across the country that are trying to figure out how to maintain control and power in a city where white minorities are losing the population race. If they don't represent a significant part of the population, they forfeit any claim to rule.

Oh really? Not one mention of illegal immigrants. It doesn't matter if the illegals are black, brown, white or purple. Illegal = illegal. Illegals + illegals creates a society of law breakers. If our federal government won't do it the local communities across America will. They will do it with ordinances and will enforce those local ordinances. Our federal government slum bags are only interested in $$$. Money that allows them to think that they know what's best for us. The backlash of public option has come home now to roost now. Come November there will not be a change. Whoever is elected or re-elected will continue on with the same old crap. Sure there will be few leaders who will stand up and fight, but they are outnumbered. We have to do what Hazelton did. Start at the local level and the hell with the federal government and their non-action and pious attitude.

[quote="Brian503a"]http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=ecceaa4f44dbf1a693a3f f825f236d81

The Most Racist City in America: Hazleton, PA

-We ask: What is really scaring white America?

-Hazleton is a non-descript mining town in Pennsylvania that has seen better days.
-Hispanics are pumping vitality back into this city.
-But the older white population feels threatened.
-They believe they are slowly losing their grip on power and are not able to keep up with the younger Hispanic population.What is happening in Hazleton is a microcosm of what is happening across our country: the white population is afraid to give up power to a growing Hispanic population.
- is not so much about drugs, crime, or terrorism.
- It is about how they, the white community, can keep brown faces from coming into their neighborhoods.
-How can they keep control and power while the Hispanic community continues to grow?
- how to maintain control and power in a city where white minorities are losing the population race.




This article is full of racism ,
constantly opposing the " young brown Hispanic population " to " older white minority " , which is" losing their power " to the new coming Raza

Scary

This is a La Raza article. What do you expect from those racist pinheads?? You can't be bi-racist....that is only "partially" racist, when you welcome LEGAL Latinos.....how can you be racist?? Sometimes, I feel like just saying, "Ok, if you think I am racist, then go ahead think what you want. I could care less. You're wasting your breath, because I'm NOT changing my mind and I know what I am and what I am NOT, yours is just an opinion. So go right ahead and call me a racist until you are blue in the face. I stand where I stand...against Illegal entry into my country."

This article is found on Daniel Munoz's web page:




July 21, 2006

The Debate Right, Left and Center

By Frank Sharry
New America Media


WASHINGTON, DC — I’m a participant in the nation’s controversial immigration policy debate. I work in Washington, DC for a pro-immigrant organization trying to convince lawmakers to enact bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform.


We work with allies from across the nation and the political spectrum. We’re seeking federal legislation that will replace the dysfunctional status quo with a regulatory regime that brings immigrants and immigration out of the shadows and under the rule of law.


Having been in this debate for a quarter of a century, I’m familiar with its fury and cross-currents. The debate isn’t for the thin of skin. It tends to generate more heat than light. And as they say, if you can’t take the heat…


But recently, our efforts have come under especially heavy fire. Interestingly, the criticism comes from both the political right and the political left.


Stick up for immigrants and some anti-immigrant hardliner will accuse you of aiding and abetting terrorism. Call for targeted enforcement and some activist will accuse you of aiding and abetting the deaths of migrants in the desert.


Support an earned path to citizenship for the majority of the nation’s undocumented immigrants and some nativist will accuse you of selling out the nation’s sovereignty.


Tolerate some restrictions on the same legalization program and some activist will accuse you of supporting an apartheid-like scheme destined to rip families apart.


Support expanded legal channels for workers to enter on long-term temporary visas with robust labor protections and an eventual path to citizenship, and you better get ready to duck, because both extremes are loaded for bear: the hard right will accuse you of being an open-borders nut case and the hard left will accuse you of supporting a modern-day slave trade.


So, am I complaining? No. The overheated resistance is actually a sign of progress. It underlines how the cause of balanced and bipartisan comprehensive reform is beginning to marginalize the hotheads on both extremes in favor of a solution that can work and pass.


For most of the past two decades, this country’s debate over immigration has been polarized by hardliners shouting past each other. The arguments may be sophisticated, but the underlying themes remain the same: Let ‘em all in! Keep em all out! But something new is happening. A new center of political gravity is emerging.


This new center says let’s fix our broken immigration system in our lifetime; let’s walk and chew gum at the same time; let’s combine carrots and sticks in a way that works; let’s expand the path to citizenship for those seeking the American Dream, while expanding enforcement mechanisms that make the process safe, legal and orderly; let’s build a regulatory regime that delivers the labor and political rights wanted by immigrants and delivers the government’s control of the process wanted by the American people.


This new approach is championed by the likes of Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ). They’ve been joined by many others from both parties.


Just recently, the Senate passed an imperfect but unprecedented rough draft of comprehensive immigration reform by a margin of 62-36. The majority of those backing the measure were Democrats, but they were joined with a brave and hearty band of Republican reformers. Their collective determination to buck partisan politics for a stab at a pragmatic solution was inspiring.


The response? You guessed it.


The hard right is howling like stuck pigs, claiming the Senate bill is an “amnesty that rewards lawbreakers.” They cite distorted studies and conjure up images of millions of unassimilable new immigrants determined to overrun the nation. They favor the punitive enforcement-only bill authored by James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and enacted mostly along party lines in the House last December (yes, the bill that brought millions of immigrants and their allies into the streets this past spring).


Meanwhile, some on the hard left have turned their fire from the House bill onto the Senate bill, making the incredible claim that the Senate package isn’t much better than the House bill. Apparently, legalizing millions over the next 6-8 years, reuniting millions of family members in the next six years, providing millions of new permanent visas for workers, and giving farm workers and high school students the chance to earn citizenship isn’t much better than a House bill that makes felons out of undocumented immigrants and anyone who assists them.


No matter. The country is finally paying attention, and they get what the hardliners don’t. Solving the immigration riddle is going to require both enforcement and legalization. Public opinion polls consistently show that the American people are no longer falling for the old “either/or” debate. Their pragmatism is shining through. They want a “both/and” approach to immigration reform.


Unfortunately, the American people, desperate for a fix that works and the millions of immigrant workers and families desperate for a path to citizenship, are unlikely to get what they want. At least not this year.


Leaders of the House seem more interested in beating up on immigrants in the run up to the November mid-term elections. Instead of negotiating with their Senate colleagues on a bill, they’re holding “field hearings” around the country to drum up opposition to the Senate bill. They hope that anger at illegal immigration will move their hardcore “base” voters to turn out to vote, which will help them keep the majority in the House. They’re simply not interested in solving the problem in a balanced, or even in an unbalanced, fashion. They want an issue, not an accomplishment.


Unless something dramatic turns the tide, the House will run out the clock, the debate will continue to be a political football, and the hardliners will continue their efforts to polarize it.


The new center may not prevail this year—it’s still too weak while the old polarization is still too strong. But here’s a prediction: the correlation of strength will shift. And when it does, our nation’s lawmakers will finally change our immigration laws in ways that both respect the contributions of immigrants and respect the rule of law.


For the sake of our nation and its hardworking immigrant families, may that day come soon.


Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum in Washington, DC.

Why cannot we prohibit La Raza to spread hatred towards Americans .
This organization is a very evil one .
It should be terminated .
I think that we have to sue them for hating this country so much , how come they even allowed to open their mouths - this is really disgusting .
They are opposing themselves to all of us , telling that we are afraid of them because they are in power and that white people are old , do not have children and have to die .
This is so sick .
Is there any law which can prohibit them from spreading the hatred ?
I do not think this is freedom of speech , I think this is a propaganda of war and it has to stop .

These illegal aliens think by sheer numbers which they increase everday that they should control our country? They are out of their minds, look what that attitude has done to their own countries. They want to make the US just like the poor third world toilets that they come from at US taxpayers expense. They have another thing coming, deportation. Keep it up enforcing our laws and they will have no choice but to leave.

When confronted with the truth, resort to name calling

The hard right is howling like stuck pigs, claiming the Senate bill is an “amnesty that rewards lawbreakers.”

Wrong peckerhead, we're not 'claiming' it give amnesty, we're screaming it!!!! WE KNOW IT GIVES AMNESTY!

Hope you nailed it, this article just screams of racism. And this jerk has the audacity to call us racists? WOW! that's the pot calling the kettle black.

The hard right is howling like stuck pigs, claiming the Senate bill is an “amnesty that rewards lawbreakers.” They cite distorted studies and conjure up images of millions of unassimilable new immigrants determined to overrun the nation.

So I guess all the vidoes and pictures of mases of marchers waving Mexican flags and chanting Spanish for us to go back to Europe, that this continent belongs to them and F#$% the alamo, etc. are just conjured up images too.