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Posted on Sun, Aug. 27, 2006


Opinion
Plain and simple, Barletta’s law isn’t just Opinion Tom bigler


THIS summer, Hazleton won the attention of municipalities all across the United States.

It was the result of Mayor Lou Barletta’s ordinance banishing illegal immigrants from his city. Mayor Barletta was responding to his constituents’ resentment of the influx of Hispanic immigrants into the city and their impact on community life. To judge from the reaction of the other communities, it is a widely held attitude.

It’s not an attitude of which of any of us can be proud and it reflects a denial of our proclaimed commitment to the equality and advancement of all people.

It wasn’t always this way. Some of us can remember when the tide of immigrants flowed into our communities, mainly from Europe. They came to work in the mines, the mills, the factories and some on the farms. Traditionally, they gathered in enclaves of people from their own native land. We can remember when Wilkes-Barre had a “Little Italy” section as well as a neighborhood for the Irish, another for the Polish, one for the Greeks, the Jews, and the Lebanese, to mention only a few. The enclaves gave the immigrants the comfort of being able to use their own language in their homes and neighborhoods, having their own special food shops. And yet, when they ventured outside, it was to speak and read English, and to follow the laws and customs of the community.

There were schools set up to help the immigrants make that difficult transition. And some of that continues today. Several years ago, I had dinner with a family whose special guests for the evening were a grandfather, his son and a grandson, all immigrants from Russia. The grandfather, a marvelously gifted pianist, was having difficulty making the transition, because at his age, adapting to a new culture was especially difficult. His son, however, had made the transition and was doing well as a beginning businessman. The grandson, who had spent most of his young life with American playmates and attending our public schools, was a typical American boy. And there we had in three generations the full gamut of the experience of immigrants making the transition.

But it appears that too many of us have forgotten the experiences of our forbearers.

Mayor Barletta denies that his ordinance is in any way racist or anti-any ethnic group. Yet, that is the only major immigrant “problem” the community has today. Although there is no hard evidence as to how many of the immigrants are legal and how many illegal, the assumption of the ordinance is that many, if not most, are illegal. After all, the most recent estimate by the federal government is that there are more than 10 million illegal immigrants in the United States. They are welcomed in many parts of the country, especially for their willingness to work for low wages; however, from what we’ve heard from some Hazleton residents, this is not their attitude. They look at the immigrants with disdain, and in some cases, revulsion.

Although the federal government has enacted laws covering the whole range of immigration, for the past five years the enforcement has been weakened as the administration and Congress try to negotiate new limits. The president, who speaks Spanish, has been cultivating the Hispanic vote. At the same time, he and members of Congress are sensitive to the willingness of the immigrants to accept low-wage employment and the importance of this to the industrial and agricultural interests of the nation. They are seeking a means of keeping the rewards of all immigrants, legal and illegal, while still maintaining a rational limit on the size and rate of immigrant legalization.

In the face of this, Mayor Barletta’s attack on immigration intervenes in the debate to establish his own limits. Instead of relying on federal enforcement of the law, he has rewritten the law for his own community – raising questions about its legality. The ACLU and other social agencies have joined forces to take this and other issues in this seizure of authority to the courts for repeal.

Without a doubt, the real message of the Barletta ordinance is to advise the illegals – and most of us cannot discern them from those who are legal – that not only are they unwelcome, but are banished forthwith. Failure to comply can result in whopping $1,000 fines for the illegal immigrant and similar fines for anyone who provide them with shelter, food, medical care or other humane treatment.

His ordinance might reflect human nature, but it violates our Constitution and every other mode of expression we honor that concerns the equality and individual rights and freedom of every human being.

Perhaps more seriously, the Barletta ordinance has a consequence: It isn’t just to admonish those to whom it applies to obey the law, but it carries the inherent message, “You are not wanted.”

Immigrants, legal and illegal, feel banished, despised, and inspired to flee – if only to Beaver Meadows, Freeland, or other surrounding communities. The people so flatly rejected cannot help but be insulted and angered. Where a more conciliatory approach could retain the friendship of those affected, the Barletta ordinance creates enemies, both legals and illegals.

Just what America needs – more enemies.


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Tom Bigler is professor emeritus at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre. His column is published on Sundays.