On illegal immigration, Kanjorski, Barletta agree






BY BORYS KRAWCZENIUK
STAFF WRITER
Published: Monday, October 6, 2008 4:09 AM EDT
Republican congressional candidate Lou Barletta made himself nationally known because of his fight against illegal immigration as Hazleton’s mayor.

U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, Barletta’s Democratic opponent in the 11th Congressional District election race, predicted Barletta’s fight would fail on constitutional grounds.

Hazleton’s fight over illegal immigration goes on with an appeal pending in the federal court system.

Despite their disagreement on the constitutionality of Hazleton’s ordinance, Kanjorski and Barletta agree on the main points surrounding the issue.

Both want strong restrictions on illegal immigration. Both favor establishing English as the official national language, increasing fines on employers who hire illegal immigrants and requiring illegal immigrants to return to their native counties before they can apply for citizenship.

Both oppose amnesty and pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Barletta favors temporary worker programs for farming and other industries that can show a specific need. Efforts to reach Kanjorski, who was in Washington working on the federal bailout this week, were unsuccessful.

Ed Mitchell, his campaign spokesman, said the congressman doesn’t necessarily rule out temporary workers programs, but favors an enforcement-first policy above all.

Depending on who is doing the estimating, between 12 million and 20 million illegal immigrants live in the United States.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform pegs Pennsylvania’s illegal immigrant population at about 140,000 as of 2007 while the Pew Hispanic Center says it could be as high as 175,000.

No local estimates were available.

Opposition groups — and there are plenty of them — plus Barletta and Kanjorski blame the rise in illegal immigration on a lack of enforcement of immigration laws by the federal government.

Barletta faults Kanjorski for voting for a 1986 immigration reform bill because it contained amnesty provisions. He never mentions Kanjorski’s vote for an amendment to the bill that would have struck language granting temporary resident status to millions of illegal immigrants.

But the mayor acknowledges the law isn’t the problem.

“We don’t need to create new laws. We just need to enforce the laws that we already have,â€