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Last Updated: 11:18 am | Monday, December 4, 2006
City considers illegal immigration legislation
BY AMANDA VAN BENSCHOTEN | COMMUNITY RECORDER STAFF WRITER
COVINGTON - The city may begin punishing business owners and landlords who do business with illegal immigrants.

The proposal would permit Covington to revoke or suspend the occupational licenses of businesses who knowingly employ, and landlords who knowingly rent to, illegal immigrants.

It's already illegal to do both under federal law, but Commissioner Rob Sanders said a local law would help ensure that tax-funded services like police and fire are being used by taxpayers.

"That's what the aim of this is," he said at the November 28 commission meeting.

Commissioners had a first reading of an ordinance for businesses, then opted to add landlords. The revised proposal will have another first reading before a vote is taken. That likely won't happen until January, if then.

Commissioner Jerry Bamberger said he'd like to wait and see the outcome of a lawsuit filed against Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which passed a similar ordinance in August.

"I want to see what we're getting into," he said.

Commissioner Alex Edmondson, an attorney, said local immigration laws have faced legal scrutiny in cities across the country.

"This is a problem the federal government has to control. It falls under their jurisdiction," he said.

And, he said, the ordinance would be "almost impossible to enforce...It would turn into a battle royale."

"We don't have the resources now in the police department to go after some of the things we have to deal with," he said. "How in the world are we going to enforce this?"

Covington is the first Northern Kentucky city to propose such a law. Two incidents this year have brought the national debate on illegal immigration close to home.

In May, 76 workers were arrested in a sweep of Fischer Homes construction sites. Three subcontracting companies and five Fischer Homes supervisors faced federal charges, but charges were dropped earlier this month against the supervisors.

On November 28, 32 workers were arrested in Florence and Covington and charged with being in the U.S. illegally.