Hazleton mayor: County should follow city’s lead

BY STEPHEN J. PYTAK
STAFF WRITER
spytak@republicanherald.com
09/15/2006

In response to a lawsuit, Hazleton approved its revised version of the controversial Illegal Immigration Relief Act on Tuesday and Mayor Louis J. Barletta encouraged Schuylkill County municipalities to follow suit.

“That’s my recommendations to all cities across the United States who are following our lead. Make the amendments as the City of Hazleton does,” Barletta said earlier this week.

Since Haz-leton tentatively ap-proved its initial ordinance in June, four northern Schuylkill County municipalities have finalized similar ordinances: Gilberton borough, Aug. 24; Mahanoy City borough, Aug. 8; Mahanoy Township, Aug. 17; and West Mahanoy Township, Aug. 15.

Like the version it replaces, the new Hazleton ordinance punishes businesses that employ illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them.

But the new law goes about enforcement in a completely different way, putting the burden of verifying immigration status on the city, giving landlords and businesses time to correct violations before imposing sanctions, and softening penalties.

Still, Hispanic activists said the replacement law is unconstitutional and vowed a court fight.

Gilberton Mayor Mary Lou Hannon said the council will examine Hazleton’s changes with solicitor Karen Domalakes.

“Ours isn’t identical to theirs. We went by Hazleton’s ordinance but Karen did make some changes,” Hannon said.

“I feel pretty comfortable with the way ours is,” said Mahanoy Township supervisors Chairwoman Sharon R. Chiao. “We’re not trying to be the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). All we’re trying to do is protect our communities.”

Still, Chiao said she intends to get copies of Hazleton’s changes so the supervisors can look them over.

“I read about the changes and I’m going to wait and sit with our solicitor and see what he thinks,” said West Mahanoy Township supervisors Chairman Joseph M. Sweeney.

Municipalities don’t simply revise or create new ordinances with a snap of the fingers.

“You got to advertise it, and you have to get the solicitor involved. It puts a hurting on you,” Sweeney said. “But if it works, we’ll make two ordinances out of it like Hazleton did. Why wait until they come after us?”

Approved in Hazleton, Luzerne County, on July 13, the Illegal Immigration Relief Act targeted illegal immigrants, punished landlords who rented rooms to them with $1,000 fines and businesses who employed them by taking away their licenses for up to five years. It also insisted all correspondence to and from the municipality be in English.

Its critics included the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union, who filed a lawsuit against Hazleton on behalf of 11 Hazleton residents and business owners and three nonprofit groups in August.

This encouraged Barletta and Hazleton City Council to rethink the law.

“We’ve amended it to strengthen it to withstand the legal challenge,” Barletta said.

It was reworded and broken in two: Ordinance 2006-18, the Illegal Immigration Relief Act; and Ordinance 2006-19, the Official English Ordinance.

The “Official English” law states English is the official language of Hazleton.

“I felt from the beginning the English portion should be separate. English as the official language doesn’t have anything to do with illegal immigration. And rather than confuse the issue since we’re amending the ordinance it was the proper time to make that separation,” he said.

On Tuesday, Hazleton held the second and third readings and gave final approval.

“I supported this 100 percent and I thought it was a good ordinance and from what I heard, he made it even stronger,” Hannon said.



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