Thread: West Hazleton Council Adopts Illegal Immigration Relief Act

Article was missed so adding it to our database.

http://www.standardspeaker.com/index.ph ... 1&Itemid=2

West Hazleton Council Adopts Illegal Immigration Relief Act

Friday, 11 August 2006 By AMANDA CHRISTMAN
West Hazleton Borough Council unanimously voted to adopt a version of Hazleton City's Illegal Immigration Relief Act (IIRA) Thursday night.

Borough Solicitor Jarrod Tranguch explained that the act is essentially Hazleton's act, with the exception that English is not named as the borough's official language.

Tranguch said the portion addressing the official language of the borough was deleted from the borough's version.
Council President Julie Ehlers said the borough's legal council advised that the portion of the Hazleton act stating that all official borough documents and borough business would be conducted in English is a separate issue.
In essence, Tranguch said the ordinance prohibits the hiring of and renting to illegal immigrants.

IIRA is ordinance No. 2 of 2006 in the borough and underwent some minor changes since it was advertised last month.

Tranguch explained that most of the changes were corrections to typographical errors.

He went through those amended portions during the meeting. In one portion the definition for legal work status was deleted.

Tranguch said the definition was removed because the act does not reference to legal work status.

He also said that the amount of fines a person can assume for breaking the law of the ordinance was changed to $1,000.

The advertised version of the ordinance Tranguch said, stated that a person could be fined "up to $1,000" for violating the ordinance.

Councilwoman Kelly Feltes said she gave the IIRA a lot of thought.
Feltes said that if illegal immigrants can come to America easily, so can terrorists, while referencing Thursday's foiled terrorist attacks.

She said she applauds local governments that want to take these problems, "into our own hands."

When questioned if he felt the borough set itself up for a lawsuit, Mayor Mark Rockovich said he isn't worried.

He said the ordinance is specifically against illegal immigrants.

No one attending the meeting threatened to sue the borough over the ordinance, which differs from when Hazleton City adopted its version.

Also, no one protested the adoption of the ordinance Thursday either.

"What we are doing is enforcing the laws that the federal government should be enforcing," Rockovich said.

He said the borough has not decided which borough official will enforce the ordinance.

Only one resident questioned the IIRA during the public comment portion of the meeting.

One man said he felt the IIRA was unfair to employers and landlords.

He questioned what would happen to a landlord or employer if someone gave them false identification and they couldn't tell if it was authentic.

Tranguch said in that instance, the employer or landlord would not be held libel.

He said the ordinance states that any landlord that "knowingly" rents to or any employer that "knowingly" hires an illegal immigrant is subject to fines.

TBy using "knowingly" they have just set their bar to low. They should appoint a new or designate an existing municipal officer to institute SAVE and Basic Pilot.

Yes, 'knowingly' seems like a loophole you could drive a big truck through - or a bunch of illegals.