Nationally and locally – even in tiny Courtdale – towns consider similar rules.

By STEVE MOCARSKY smocarsky@leader.net

Discussions on adopting an ordinance similar to Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act have been occurring among local officials statewide – in big cities such as Allentown, smaller municipalities such as Wilkes-Barre Township, and even tiny boroughs such as Courtdale.

In fact, copycat legislation is springing up in towns nationwide, said John Garcia, communications director for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York City.

Attorneys from Garcia’s group, the American Civil Liberties Union, Harrisburg-based Community Justice Project and private-practice civil rights attorneys threatened to sue Hazleton if council passed the ordinance, which punishes landlords and employers who rent to, hire, aid or abet illegal immigrants, and says all city documents and signs must be printed only in English.

Mayor Louis Barletta has said he got the idea from similar proposed legislation in San Bernardino, Calif., that might be put to vote on a public ballot. Barletta has said illegal immigrants are straining the resources of city government, schools and hospitals.

He presented his ordinance to council in June after recent violent crimes in the city were attributed to illegal immigrants.

Opponents say the ordinance will lead to discrimination against Latinos seeking jobs and housing. Officials estimate the Latino community in Hazleton has grown from about 1,100 people in 2000 to about 9,000 this year, accounting for about 30 percent of the city’s estimated 30,000 residents.

So far, Garcia said, his organization has learned of similar legislation drafted or being written in four Pennsylvania towns, three California towns, and one Florida town.

Hazle Township supervisors adopted a similar ordinance two days before Hazleton City Council’s final vote on July 13, and city council in Avon Park, Fla., voted down a similar ordinance on Monday, Garcia said.

He is also aware of municipal officials’ interest in towns in Alabama, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington state. The media have reported discussions in several other Pennsylvania towns.

Keeping a watchful eye

Garcia said he expected as much.

“This is a very emotional issue. People are looking for solutions to immigration under every rock and in every hole they can find. It’s not surprising given the publicity (Barletta) got.”

Garcia said his organization started the Latino Immigrant Justice Campaign to monitor the effects Hazleton’s adoption of the ordinance is having nationally.

“We’re sort of being the center warehouse for this type of information.”

One local municipality under watch is Wilkes-Barre Township, population 3,088. Council last month asked Solicitor Bruce Phillips to look into creating an ordinance similar to Hazleton’s. Officials there did not immediately return messages left at their homes Sunday.

In Courtdale, population 754, Councilman John Baldovsky said council members heard about Hazleton’s ordinance in the news and the topic came up at a council meeting. “We discussed it, but no action was taken. We just thought we would talk about it.”

Baldovsky said the council has not requested a copy of Hazleton’s ordinance, and he doesn’t know if there’s a need because “we’re just a small town. Hazleton’s a big area. But anything could happen.”

Courtdale Mayor Jim Gaughan said he hopes the borough solicitor will have an ordinance – or at least some ideas for an ordinance – prepared for council’s review at this Thursday’s council meeting.

Gaughan said he has seen the negative effects illegal immigration has had nationally, and he doesn’t want to see it happen in his borough.

“The federal government has an impossible task on their hands. … So I think the small, local governments have to get involved.”

In Shenandoah, population 5,296, Mayor Thomas O’Neill said the solicitor there is “more or less copying pretty much what Hazleton has.”

O’Neill and council are more interested in provisions that fine landlords for failing to register tenants, whether illegal immigrants or not.

“It’s really a quality-of-life issue. Many properties here have been bought up by people living outside the area who are not keeping up with their tenants. We have already penalized property owners for having tenants they didn’t register, and I believe there were a couple of them that were actually illegal,” O’Neill said.

Sunbury takes own approach

Garcia said many towns are wary about adopting an ordinance similar to Hazleton’s, especially after the Associated Press reported that attorneys for the Congressional Research Service concluded that courts could not enforce most measures in the ordinance, if challenged, because they duplicate and are preempted by federal law.

In Sunbury, another town to hit the news recently for its immigration discussion, Mayor Jesse Woodring said he has joined city police on patrols and sees a potential problem with illegal immigrants.

“Through that method, I see where a lot of them are housed in smaller spaces. I don’t know if there’s an avoidance of taxes or overcrowding in apartments, and we need to address that just like we need to address drugs and other kinds of problems.”

Woodring said his code officers find “many people living in a small space who do not speak English” in the town of about 10,000 residents.

“Communications are dead in the water, so they are unable to ascertain any kind of identification or even to communicate,” he said.

“That leads us to suspect there may be something illegal or something wrong here.

“One of the things we talked about was to get facts together and discuss solutions. We’re not going to jump on an ordinance immediately.”

Garcia said Sunbury officials are taking the right approach to their city’s problems, and likened their strategy to that of officials in Avon Park, Fla., where Mayor Thomas Macklin had been pushing to adopt an ordinance similar to Hazleton’s for the past two months.

Last Monday, Avon Park’s council defeated the ordinance 3-2 after a councilwoman changed her stance.

Riverside, N.J., is the latest municipality to adopt an illegal-immigration ordinance.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week that Riverside council on Wednesday voted 5-0 to adopt the ordinance, with the crowd of 300 who attended the meeting about evenly split.

“The comments drew jeers, screams, shouting matches, and, for some in the audience, a police escort out of the Riverside High School auditorium, where the meeting had been moved from the Town Hall as scores of people showed up,” Inquirer staff writer Toni Callas reported.

WHERE THE IDEA IS CATCHING ON

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The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund has been tracking copycat legislation that has emerged nationwide after Hazleton City Council’s adoption of the Illegal-Immigration Relief Act. Here are towns that have considered or are considering some form of an illegal-immigration relief act.

Legislation has been adopted in:

Hazleton, Hazle Township, Riverside Township, N.J.

Legislation has been rejected in:

Avon Park, Fla.

Written legislation is under consideration in:

Allentown, Mount Pocono, Shenandoah; the California cities of San Bernardino, Escondido and Vista; and Palm Bay, Fla.

Possible legislation is being discussed in:

Courtdale, Wilkes-Barre Township, Frackville, Sunbury; Gadsden, Ala.; Cape Cod, Mass.; and Kennewick, Wash.

Media outlets have also reported discussions about immigration ordinances in:

Ashland, Lancaster, Lansford, McAdoo, Nesquehoning, and West Mahanoy Township, all in Pennsylvania; and Huntsville, Ala.


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Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 459-2005.

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/15161904.htm