Towns struggling with flow of illegals
Laws are often challenged, and defeated in the courts

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Sunday, December 10, 2006
BY BRIAN DONOHUE
Star-Ledger Staff

With Congress deadlocked over how to handle illegal immigration, a growing number of towns and cities are taking matters into their own hands, using local laws to crack down on the problems associated with a massive underground population.

In New Jersey, some towns have toughened traffic laws to deter contractors from picking up day laborers on city streets. Others have tried to ban workers from gathering on street corners to wait for work. Several have launched housing code crackdowns to combat overcrowding. One has banned illegal immigrants from renting apartments altogether.

And few, if any, are having much success.

In a growing number of towns, local crackdowns are faltering amid court challenges, political opposition or other hurdles.

Consider:

# The Borough of Bound Brook launched a series of housing raids to address rampant overcrowding in homes rented mostly by Latino immigrants in the late 1990s. But the U.S. Justice Department sued the town for illegally targeting Hispanics, resulting in a 2004 consent decree requiring the town to repay victims $425,000, hire a bilingual housing coordinator and make dramatic changes to its housing and zoning practices.

# Freehold Borough's housing crackdown and an effort to shut down a day laborer gathering area were challenged in a lawsuit filed by immigrant rights groups. In a settlement last month, the borough agreed to pay $278,000, change its housing inspection procedures and allow laborers to gather on public property.

# In July, the Township of Riverside in Burlington County passed a law fining employers and landlords who hire or rent apartments to illegal immigrants. In local elections last month, the Republican mayor and council member who pushed the measure were swept from office. With legal fees mounting from a pair of lawsuits challenging the law, Mayor Charles Hilton -- the man who proposed the law -- is calling for its repeal.

The trend has left local officials increasingly frustrated as they attempt to address complaints from residents about problems like "stacking" -- the housing of more people in a dwelling than is allowed by law.

"There's such a high level of frustration, and there's a reaction, if not an overreaction by officials based on that frustration," said Christopher Cotter, city administrator of the City of Summit, which toughened parking rules to keep contractors from blocking streets as they pick up day laborers.

"I think elected officials are being pressed by constituents just do something, do anything, and we're seeing the result of that in some cases," Cotter said.

The legal troubles encountered by some towns have convinced several municipalities that had been considering their own crackdowns to back off.

In both Newton and Keyport, for example, officials introduced ordinances similar to Riverside's housing and hiring ban to their governing bodies, but did not pass them.

The trend has emboldened immigrant advocates, who say towns must try a more cooperative approach, such as setting up designated hiring sites for day laborers, or programs to educate tenants on housing laws.

"When little towns try to take federal law in their hands, they fail," said Mahonrry Hidalgo, chairman of the NJ Hispanic Leadership Alliance Immigrant Committee. "So now everybody needs to try and change their approach to the solution and accept that we have to work together as one community."

Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at the New York University School of Law, is tracking the efforts by a growing number of towns across the country to pass laws banning the hiring and housing of illegals, like the one passed by Riverside.

Of the 49 towns and cities where such ordinances were introduced, he said, 28 passed and 21 were defeated. Many of the 21 towns that passed the laws, including Riverside, are now facing lawsuits by civil rights groups.

In addition, efforts to combat immigration problems with traffic, housing or loitering laws have consistently failed when challenged in court, he said. Most efforts die for one of two reasons: They are either ruled unconstitutional, or judges rule that immigration enforcement is solely the job of the federal government.

"Populist as they are, they are highly suspect legally," Chishti said of such measures.

Steve Camarota, Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank calling for lower immigration levels, says local communities have been "left holding the bag" by the government's failure to enforce immigration laws.

When they try to use local laws to combat immigration problems, he said, they square off against civil rights and immigrant advocate groups that are better prepared, and often better funded, than attorneys hired by small towns.

"There's a whole cottage industry of people, from the ACLU to MALDEF (the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) whose sole purpose, as part of their day job, is to intimidate anyone who wants to enforce immigration laws," Camarota said.

As Bound Brook learned, the U.S. Department of Justice can also present challenges.

While the town has strictly followed the rules laid out in its consent decree, Mayor Frank Ryan says the town still has problems with overcrowding. He remains frustrated that federal officials who sued the town gave little credence to the problems caused by an influx of immigrants, many of them illegal.

In one house, Ryan said, a couple were living in an attic on a mattress, using candles for light.

"The people from the Justice Department didn't see that," he said. "You get criticized for going after people this way, but what would happen if you had a fire and you had 12 people burned to death? You would get criticized for not inspecting these places."

There are an estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, with as many as 425,000 living in New Jersey, according to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Competing immigration reform bills have stalled in both houses of Congress.

A bipartisan measure passed by the Senate would combine a new guest worker program with tougher enforcement of immigration laws. A Republican-sponsored bill passed by the House of Representatives includes only tougher enforcement provisions.

Both immigrant advocates and restrictionists agree the struggles of towns to tackle the problem on their own make it all the more urgent for Congress to deal with the issue.

"Good, bad or indifferent, local towns can't enforce federal immigration law," Chishti said. "The most they can do is put political pressure on Congress to make the change happen."

Brian Donohue covers immigration issues. He may be reached at bdonohue@starledger.com or (973) 392-1543.