Easton forum targets anti-immigration legislation
More than a dozen bills are pending.

By PAUL MUSCHICK, Of The Morning Call

5:19 p.m. EDT, August 6, 2011

Immigrant advocates held a forum in Easton on Saturday as part of a statewide effort to defeat anti-immigration bills pending in the state Legislature.

Representatives of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition, American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Allentown Weed and Seed said about 20 bills are pending that would lead to racial profiling and would backfire by negatively affecting the general public. They said the bills would jeopardize public safety, restrict job creation and violate the Constitution.

"It's really shocking to me that this is happening in our state," said Craig Robinson, an attorney at Weinstein, Schleifer & Kupersmith, who works pro bono representing asylum applicants. "We need to do everything we can to stop these laws from being passed."

Some of the bills are expected to be debated later this month at a legislative committee hearing. Legislation introduced this session includes House bills 41, 379, 380, 474, 738, 798, 799, 801, 809, 857 and 858, and Senate bills 9, 515, 637, 891 and 947.

Forum speakers said some of the proposed laws are modeled after Arizona's controversial immigration law, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition said bills would allow local police to screen and report the immigration status of people they stop; require applicants for various public benefits to prove their legal immigration status by showing government-issued identification; require employers to verify the immigration status of their workers through a federal database; and remove birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants.

"It's just amazing how ridiculous these bills are, and it's going to get worse," said the coalition's executive director, Brad Baldia, who noted birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

The bills' sponsors disagree.

Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, is chief sponsor of some of the legislation. In a memo to legislators seeking co-sponsors, Metcalfe wrote that there are a "myriad of problems" associated with unchecked illegal immigration.

"In the wake of the failure of the federal government to sufficiently address these problems, states have been left to fend for themselves," he wrote.

Forum speakers said Saturday that allowing local police to act as immigration agents would undermine law enforcement efforts by deterring immigrants from reporting crimes and coming forward as witnesses. They said requiring employers to verify workers' status could lead to labor shortages. They said requiring identification to access benefits would backfire against elderly, African-American and poor citizens who don't have government IDs.

"These folks are citizens," said Emma Cleveland of the ACLU. "They have a right to access benefits."

The immigration issue is not new to Pennsylvania, or to Allentown.

In 2006, the city of Hazleton enacted a law levying penalties on landlords and businesses that rent to and hire illegal immigrants. A federal district judge and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law was unconstitutional. But the appeals court recently set aside that decision and will consider new arguments in light of the Supreme Court's decision upholding Arizona's similar law.

Around the same time in Allentown, City Council considered several versions of a law authorizing city police to train to enforce federal immigration laws. None of the measures won approval.

paul.muschick@mcall.com

610-820-6582

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