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From The Morning Call
September 26, 2006
Proposed city law on illegals changed
Allentown councilman plans to push for vote on immigration issue.
By Romy Varghese Of The Morning Call
Allentown City Councilman Louis J. Hershman has revised his proposed illegal immigration law and plans to force the matter before council by collecting signatures from residents.

Under his new bill, city officials would be required to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

The police department would designate two officers to investigate and detain illegal immigrants. The department would also confirm the identities of people in police custody.

City officials would also verify residences of people when legal status is required by law, contract, and eligibility rules for a benefit, service or license.

Hershman's original bill, which was never formally introduced because it didn't receive a second from another councilman, would have penalized companies for hiring illegal immigrants and landlords for renting to them.

''I wasn't looking for this to go to the courts,'' Hershman said Monday at the last meeting of his ad hoc committee on illegal immigration. ''...This will satisfy everyone.''

Hershman said he will use a city provision that allows an issue to go on City Council's agenda if 35 registered Allentown voters sign a petition asking for it. He hopes to get his bill on the agenda for the mid-October meeting.

Then, Hershman said, he and fellow Councilman David Bausch will sign the ordinance, which will force a vote on it.

If the council votes against his bill, Hershman said he would try to get it on the ballot as a referendum. Labor unions would pitch in and work toward getting the needed signatures, he said.

''We'll have a lot of help,'' Hershman said.

Police Chief Roger MacLean said his officers already check the identities of people in custody. And whenever they come across illegal immigrants, they turn them over to federal officials, he said.

''I don't have two officers to spare'' for immigration duties, MacLean said.

At the meeting, committee members Mike Seward and Robert Smith emphasized they were not bigots and expressed dismay that previous discussions turned the matter into a race issue.

Smith criticized Allentown attorney David Vaida for representing an illegal immigrant who pled guilty to raping an 8-year-old girl. Vaida had spoken out against Hershman's bill and had joined a suit against Hazleton's original illegal immigration ordinance.

Illegal immigrants are also being victimized, said Smith, citing recent prostitution busts.

''These people are being used by organized crime,'' he said.

romy.varghese@mcall.com

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