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State human relations commission meets locally to talk about immigration
Monday, 28 August 2006
By KENT JACKSON
kent.jackson@standardspeaker.com
Illegal immigration is not a problem in Pennsylvania, a lobbyist told the state’s Human Relations Commission on Monday during a special meeting in Hazleton.

Robert Nix of Phoenix Strategies in Philadelphia used statistics to make his point that Pennsylvania needs immigrants to supplement its aging workforce.

Pennsylvania has a lower percentage of foreign-born residents than the national average, ranks second-to-last in population growth, and has the fourth-highest median age of all states.

"We need immigrants for our future. It seems communities taking immigration into their own hands are barking up the wrong tree," Nix said.

Hazleton enacted an Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which other municipalities have copied, so the Human Relations Commission came to the city to listen to comments about the law.

Nix believes the solution to immigration issues should come from the federal government rather than through local laws.

He was among the speakers at the hearing to support the U.S. Senate plan that provides a method for illegal immigrants to gain legal status. In contrast, the House bill that makes illegal immigration a felony.

Jonathan Blazer, an attorney for the National Immigration Law Center, said everyone but smugglers prefers that people come to the United States legally rather than illegally.

But the immigration laws are so restrictive that workers with low skills have virtually no opportunity to enter the United States legally. For example, a Mexican with a sister in the United States might wait nine to 10 years to immigrate the U.S., he said after speaking to the commission. "People are forced to make heart-breaking decisions," Blazer said.

The Senate bill would change that, and Blazer said he would expect advocates of restrictions on illegal immigration to support the bill.

"That they do not speaks volumes to their motivation," Blazer said.

The problem with local immigration laws, he said, is that while advocates say they are for legal immigration and bear no malice toward ethnic groups, the message gets garbled when it reaches ordinary citizens.

Dr. Agapito Lopez, a Hazleton physician and leader of opposition to the city’s immigration law, gave examples.

He heard reports of English-only rules being applied in workplaces and schools and of catcalls directed at people speaking Spanish on the street.

"They said ‘Speak English because you’re in America,’" Lopez said.

The Hazleton law makes English the official language of city government but doesn’t forbid the speaking of other languages in businesses, homes, schools, churches, or elsewhere in the city.

Since 1991, the commission has opposed English-only laws, Chairman Stephen Glassman said.

Glassman said Hazleton enacted its law under the perception that illegal immigration fuels crime and adds to the cost of running city government, but those perceptions are unsupported by data, he said.

Immigrants, regardless of their legal status, might contribute more to government than the government spends to serve them, he said.

Meanwhile, Hazleton’s law also fines landlords for renting to illegal immigrants and disqualifies businesses that hire illegal immigrants from receiving city grants or getting or renewing city business licenses.

Lopez said laws like Hazleton approved can provide an excuse for misbehavior. He thanked the city police and other groups for helping keep order and asked people to be respectful during a rally that he plans for Sunday.

The rally will start at Memorial Park at 1 p.m. and include a march to City Hall.

"We hope all people that are participants will be calm ... We want to be in solidarity with all the people that will be affected," Lopez said. Businesses and taxpayers will notice the economic impact of the law and shoulder the cost of defending the law against a federal suit, he said.

Lopez said a second action will be filed soon in federal court to delay the implementation of the law in Hazleton, which currently is set to take effect Oct. 1.

The Rev. Pat Sullivan, a social sciences teacher at King’s College, opposed the Hazleton ordinance because his faith reminds him to be a good neighbor.

Neighbors aren’t limited to people who live near each other, nor is neighborliness "dependent on where they’re born or what documents they possess," Sullivan said when citing the parable of the Good Samaritan and a Labor Day statement of Catholic Bishops.

Part-time police officer Michael Keslosky, who recently served in the military in Iraq, said northeastern Pennsylvania has just six police officers who are of minority descent.

"It’s outrageous to me when the law enforcement community should reflect the community they serve," Keslosky said.

He also said the regional police training academy teaches cadets to use racial profiling. For example, he said cadets are taught to assume a law is being broken when they see a Hispanic man and a white woman together or a group of Hispanic men.

"That’s not true," said Robert Green, director of the Hazleton Center of Lackawanna College, which trains police officers.

The previous class had four Hispanic students, and three Hispanic students are taking the course now, Green said.

"Why would a teacher make those comments in front of Hispanic students during a class? It doesn’t make sense," he said.

The course takes 800 hours, has 10 to 14 different instructors, and also is taught at the college’s main campus in Scranton, Green said.

Keslosky didn’t name a campus or instructor in his remarks.