http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/16747983.htm

Posted on Wed, Feb. 21, 2007

Landlords, tenants group challenges illegal immigrant law

Associated Press

BERWICK, Pa. - A group of landlords and tenants has filed a federal court lawsuit challenging a new ordinance aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants.

By requiring all renters to show identification papers, and imposing penalties on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, the lawsuit argues that the ordinance makes renters "second-class citizens."

The plaintiffs ask the court to bar enforcement of the ordinance until the lawsuit is decided.

Borough Manager Shane Pepe said that will mean postponing a planned public discussion of the law by the borough council.

Plaintiffs include Akshay and Bharti Chaudan, naturalized U.S. citizens who were born in India. The complaint argues that the law does not define "illegal alien," and because the Chaudans look and sound "foreign," it is "very likely that they will be denied future residential rental housing in the Borough of Berwick."

The lawsuit argues that violates their constitutional right to equal protection.
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