Thread: Riverside Claims Lawyer Cannot File Immigration Suit

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news ... 423826.htm

Riverside claims lawyer can't file immigration suitBy Toni Callas
Inquirer Staff Writer
The Riverside Township Council filed a motion yesterday to dismiss a lawsuit against its new immigration ordinance, contending that the lawyer for the Latino group that filed it wasn't licensed to practice in New Jersey.

William Sanchez, a Miami-based lawyer, represents the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders. His name is on the federal lawsuit filed last month that seeks to overturn a law, passed in July, which bans hiring and housing of illegal immigrants.

"Civil rules of procedure require all pleadings be filed by an attorney who is a member of the bar of this court," township attorney Douglas Heinold said in the motion, which also seeks to throw out the suit's request for $10 million in damages. The coalition contends that the law displaces immigrant residents of Riverside and that they are entitled to compensation.

In a news release late yesterday, Heinold and Mayor Charles Hilton said the lawsuit by the coalition was meant to "grandstand to the press and attempt to intimidate" the council.

"We don't seek to be the poster child for illegal immigration," Hilton said. "We're just trying to deal with important local issues - locally."

Sanchez, who is licensed to practice in Florida, said the coalition would have a New Jersey representative.

"This is a normal procedural matter that is easily remedied by adding cocounsel," he said. "We are adding the ACLU. But what's more interesting to me is that they would spend so much time on something so simple, rather than focus on the substance of whether their ordinance is constitutional."

Sanchez said the coalition would file to have Riverside's motion dismissed next week.

Riverside is one of several communities across the country trying to tackle illegal immigration. Hazleton, Pa., which was the first to pass a law that bans hiring or renting to illegal immigrants, and other towns argue that the federal government has not done enough to enforce immigration law. Hazleton is also being sued.

Riverside and the coalition - also known as CONLAMIC - have been in a wrangle over the law for weeks.

Last month, a rally organized by the Latino coalition drew both opponents and supporters of the new law. There was shouting and a show of Confederate flags, which seemed to bring out in the open some of the tensions in the town that had been simmering for years.

It is estimated that 1,500 to 3,5000 illegal immigrants live in this town of 8,000. Many are Brazilian, who followed the Portuguese - and their common language - to Riverside beginning in the 1960s. A second wave of Brazilian immigrants began flowing into the town in the last five years.


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An lawyer unlicensed to practice in NJ filing a suite on behalf of illegal aliens.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/p ... 20365/1006

Tension over law aired in court

By RICHARD PEARSALL
Courier-Post Staff

In a flurry of activity related to Riverside's anti-illegal immigration ordinance late this week, a motion was filed in one federal courthouse, an agreement was reached in another and a statement was issued Friday morning that there will be no demonstration by Latino leaders on the opening day of school.

Riverside filed a motion Thursday in U.S. District Court in Newark asking that the suit filed by a Latino organization against its ordinance be dismissed on procedural grounds.

The Miami attorney who filed the complaint is not licensed to practice before the federal court here, the township argued.

The Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy & Christian Leaders, which sued the township, said the absence of a local law firm was an oversight that "will be corrected Tuesday."

"We have six or seven attorneys ready to step in," Rivera said.

Meanwhile, the city of Hazleton, Pa., whose ordinance served as a model for Riverside's Illegal Immigration Relief Act, agreed in U.S. District Court in Scranton, Pa., not to begin enforcing its ordinance as planned on Sept. 11.

"We're very happy," said Foster Maer, an attorney for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the group that sued Hazleton, noting that as part of the agreement, Hazleton agreed to give 20 days notice before either revising the ordinance or beginning to enforce it.

The ordinances in both Hazleton and Riverside prescribe fines for landlords who knowingly rent to illegal immigrants or employers who knowingly hire them.

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta said Friday that the city will be back with a revised ordinance and that this week's actions were "simply procedural."

"The revised ordinance which we will implement in Hazleton does not reflect a change in the commitment of the city's leadership to halt the influx of illegal immigrants," Barletta said.

In Riverside, Mayor Charles Hilton accused opponents of the ordinance of trying to make a national issue out of a local one.

"We don't seek to be the poster child for illegal immigration reform," Hilton said. "We're just trying to deal with important local issues."

The township has been trying to combat overcrowded housing for years, the mayor said, explaining the township's ordinance was another step in that process.

Rivera called that a "smokescreen" for "creating animosity against immigrants."

Rivera applauded Hilton and Riverside's Superintendent of Schools Robert Goldschmidt for making it clear that all residents of the township are welcome to register in its public schools, making it possible for him to back away from any plans to be present for the opening of school Wednesday.

Reach Richard Pearsall at (856) 486-2465 or rpearsall@courierpostonline.com
Published: September 02. 2006 3:10AM