Thread: Pennsylvania city poised for crackdown

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 5812&rfi=6

06/19/2006
Pennsylvania city poised for crackdown on illegal immigrants
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer , The Associated Press

With tensions rising and its police department and municipal budget stretched thin, this small northeastern Pennsylvania city is about to begin what the mayor calls one of the toughest crackdowns on illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States.
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"Illegal immigrants are destroying the city," said Mayor Lou Barletta, a Republican. "I don't want them here, period."


Last week Barletta introduced, and the City Council tentatively approved, a measure that would revoke the business licenses of companies that employ illegal immigrants; impose $1,000 fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants; and make English the official language of the city.


Barletta said he had no choice but to act after two illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic were charged last month with shooting and killing a 29-year-old man. Other recent incidents involving illegal immigrants have rattled this former coal town 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia, including the arrest of a 14-year-old boy for firing a gun at a playground.


"This is crazy," said Barletta, who took office in 2000. "People are afraid to walk the streets. There's going to be law and order back in Hazleton and I'm going to use every tool I possibly can."


Municipal officials around the nation, frustrated at what they perceive as the federal government's inability to stem the tide of illegal immigration, have increasingly taken matters into their own hands.


In San Bernardino, Calif., voters will decide whether to adopt a measure nearly identical to the one in Hazleton. An Idaho county filed a racketeering lawsuit against agricultural companies accused of hiring illegal immigrants. In New Hampshire, a pair of police chiefs began arresting illegal immigrants for trespassing.


"They're being forced to pick up the financial tab for all of this nonsense and they are doing whatever they can do find ways to combat it at the local level," said Susan Tully, national field director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates limits on immigration. "This is a fine example of what I'm talking about."


But Flavia Jimenez, an immigrant policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza, said local authorities typically are not equipped to enforce immigration laws. She predicted the Hazleton crackdown would prompt a civil rights lawsuit.


"Landlords are going to shut their doors to anyone who may look or sound Latino," she said. "On the other hand, landlords may attempt to actually determine whether a person is undocumented or not, and make multiple mistakes because of the complexity of immigration law."


When Barletta took office in 2000, Hispanics represented only about 5 percent of the city's population of 23,000. The population has since shot up to 31,000, with Hispanics now comprising 30 percent, lured to Hazleton by cheap housing, a lower cost of living and jobs in nearby plants, factories and farms.


City officials don't know how many of the new arrivals are in the United States illegally, but say they are fueling the drug trade, joining gangs and committing other crimes.


Whites seem to overwhelmingly favor the proposed crackdown. Barletta's office has been flooded with hundreds of approving e-mails and phone calls _ from as far as California and Florida _ and he got an impromptu standing ovation when he walked into a Hazleton diner for lunch.


"It's about time," said Francis X. Tucci, 57, who was born and raised in Hazleton and owns a hair salon in the heart of the Hispanic business district whose window is adorned with tiny American flags. "We were a nice community. You find bad everywhere, I understand that, but we're talking about here and now."


Hispanics, meanwhile, are split on the measure. Some approve, saying they are fed up with crime and graffiti. "If I was mayor, I wouldn't let anyone in who had a criminal record," said Rafael Rovira, 69, a naturalized American citizen from the Dominican Republic.


Others view the proposal as punitive and unnecessary, saying that most illegal immigrants obey the law and only want to work. They point to the success of Wyoming Street, a colorful thoroughfare where dozens of businesses have opened in the past few years.


"It's going to scare a lot of people," said Christian Lechuga, 23, who emigrated from Mexico eight years ago.


His father, who came to the United States illegally in 1982, received amnesty in 1986 and now operates a grocery store and restaurant in Hazleton. Jose Lechuga, 42, said Barletta is "abusing his authority and abusing human rights."


"He's confusing illegal people with criminals," Jose Lechuga said.


The City Council, which approved the measure by a 4-1 vote, must vote on it twice more before it can become law. The next vote is scheduled for mid-July.


___


On the Net:


Open letter from Barletta: http://www.hazletoncity.org


National Council of La Raza: http://www.nclr.org

"Illegal immigrants are destroying the city," said Mayor Lou Barletta, a Republican. "I don't want them here, period."

Insert country for city and you got it!

"He's confusing illegal people with criminals," Jose Lechuga said.

He is not confused at all. Illegal people are criminals, hence the term illegal.

Whites seem to overwhelmingly favor the proposed crackdown. Barletta's office has been flooded with hundreds of approving e-mails and phone calls _ from as far as California and Florida _ and he got an impromptu standing ovation when he walked into a Hazleton diner for lunch.

And the writer knows the skin color of the hundreds of folks that called and emailed in support of the mayor...how?

"He's confusing illegal people with criminals," Jose Lechuga said.

They ARE criminals. That is like saying he was confusing lesbians with homosexuals.

So now I am confused. Which word is puzzling so many people? Is it "illegal" or "criminal"?

I shall turn to dictionary.com to help with this one:

1) Illegal

Main Entry: il·le·gal
Pronunciation: il-'lE-g&l
Function: adjective
: contrary to or in violation of a law : ILLICIT, UNLAWFUL <an illegal contract> <illegal dismissal> —il·le·gal·ly adverb

2) Criminal

Main Entry: criminal
Function: noun
1 : one who has committed a crime
2 : a person who has been convicted of a crime

3) Crime

Main Entry: crime
Pronunciation: 'krIm
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, from Latin crimen fault, accusation, crime
1 : conduct that is prohibited and has a specific punishment (as incarceration or fine) prescribed by public law —compare DELICT, TORT
2 : an offense against public law usually excluding a petty violation —see also FELONY, MISDEMEANOR
3 : criminal activity


I hope that clears everything up.

Maybe we should all move to this little town. I do not know anything about the town but I really like the mayor

But Flavia Jimenez, an immigrant policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza, said local authorities typically are not equipped to enforce immigration laws. She predicted the Hazleton crackdown would prompt a civil rights lawsuit.

Can someone expain to me why the National Council of LaRaza is not listed as a lobby group? Lobbiests have rules and restrictions on the amiount of influence they can peddle, these folks have no boundries. That is the way they are funcitoning, but they are still getting federal "grants" and monies. I see their little tenacles in every dispute. Can anyone give input on this?

That mayor is enforcing the laws of this country of which our government refuses to do. La Raza thinks these illegals can sue for anything at the american taxpayers expense. Well they cannot. If all states took this approach maybe the illegals would not find it so enticing to live there. They should live in fear, they are criminals in our country.

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Flavia Jimenez, an immigrant policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza, said local authorities typically are not equipped to enforce immigration laws. She predicted the Hazleton crackdown would prompt a civil rights lawsuit.

Civil rights! What civil rights? THEY ARE ILLEGAL!! THEY HAVE NO RIGHTS!!!! And La Raza is a radical racist organization! No more then a street gang!!

Originally Posted by Newmexican

But Flavia Jimenez, an immigrant policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza, said local authorities typically are not equipped to enforce immigration laws. She predicted the Hazleton crackdown would prompt a civil rights lawsuit.

Can someone expain to me why the National Council of LaRaza is not listed as a lobby group? Lobbiests have rules and restrictions on the amiount of influence they can peddle, these folks have no boundries. That is the way they are funcitoning, but they are still getting federal "grants" and monies. I see their little tenacles in every dispute. Can anyone give input on this?

New Mex, The only thing I can figure is they hide behind the ACLU and no one, at least in our Federal Government, wants to take on the ACLU! La Raza can play the race card and shift the critical examination of them to the critcal examination of our laws, attitudes and policies. They are enpowered by the ACLU and liberal frenzy to be "politically correct"!