Thread: Businesses opposed to Laws

Lawyers ready to fight immigration rule.
Proposal is causing racial division, Hispanic leaders say
Published Sun, Dec 3, 2006
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/forum/t ... IC_ID=8702

By JEREMY HSIEH
The Beaufort Gazette

A national civil rights group is poised to take the local illegal immigration debate into court if the Beaufort County Council passes an ordinance aimed at eliminating illegal immigrants' job opportunities in the county.
The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund is working with the county business community, community members and lawyers to fight the ordinance, an organization spokesman said.

"Civil rights attorneys are ready to defeat this in court," said spokesman John Garcia. "We hope it doesn't get there -- we're not interested in litigation. It's expensive and time-consuming."

Garcia said the parties he is working with did not give him permission to name them.

The proposed Lawful Employ-ment Ordinance would use county business license suspensions as a penalty for businesses that are discovered employing illegal immigrants. It encourages enrollment in the federal Basic Pilot Program -- a free federal online program that attempts to verify information on an employee's I-9 forms -- by making participating businesses eligible for county grants and contracts of more than $10,000 and absolving businesses of liability for violations the program fails to catch.

Council Chairman Weston Newton, a lawyer and the council member who pushed for an independent legal analysis of the proposed ordinance, would not comment on the county's legal plans if the ordinance passes because it would be "speculation."

"Council is receiving legal advice as we move forward with the discussions of the immigration ordinance," Newton said.

The council received an independent legal analysis in closed session Monday and would not discuss it afterward. A council committee is scheduled to receive additional legal advice Wednesday in closed session.

Although less than 1 percent of the county's population was Puerto Rican in 2000, according to U.S. Census data, and Puerto Ricans are American citizens since the territory is part of the U.S., Garcia said his group's interest is broader than serving exclusively Puerto Ricans.

"Every Latino here could be harassed or persecuted, regardless if they're legal or illegal," he said.

Several members of the Hispanic community have said they've noticed an increase in racial tension in recent months.

For example, at a Nov. 13 County Council meeting, Celina Echagüe of Bluffton said she was offended when a stranger in a grocery store demanded that she stop speaking Spanish with her husband.

Luis Bell, executive director of the Latin American Council of South Carolina, said the immigration debate has racial undertones.

"Beneath everything is a racial problem," Bell said. "This is all subterfuge ... a racial campaign to persecute immigrants."

The county's ordinance is among dozens of similar ones proposed in municipalities around the country based in part on the Illegal Immigration Relief Ordinance of Hazleton, Pa. That ordinance was set to take effect Nov. 1, but a federal court blocked its enactment pending trial.

Civil rights lawyers say the ordinances are unconstitutional because they allow local governments to overstep their authority by enforcing federal immigration law. Proponents of the county's ordinance say the measure does not require businesses to do anything beyond what federal law already demands and thus is legal.

Speaking to the County Council on Monday, Garcia listed several other municipalities, including Hazleton, where his organization coordinated legal fights on behalf of minorities.

In any case, Bell said, the local governments are in for a fight.

"Sometimes they stop, sometimes they go to vote on it but immediately they fight," Bell said.

Many businesses have spoken out against the proposed Lawful Employment Ordinance indirectly through umbrella organizations, such as the Beaufort Regional and Hilton Head Island-Bluffton chambers of commerce, the Hilton Head Area Hospitality Association, the home builders associations of the Hilton Head area and of the Lowcountry and the Latin American Council of South Carolina.

These organizations and Nexsen Pruet lawyer Melissa Azallion, who represents a coalition of businesses opposed to the ordinance, sent a seven-page letter to the County Council on Nov. 21 listing their concerns and potential shortcomings of the ordinance.

Azallion would not disclose her plans if the ordinance passes.

"It's premature to publicly state that at this point," she said, but she was hopeful the concerns of the letter will be addressed.

The council's Community Services and Public Safety Committee is expected to refine the ordinance in a meeting Wednesday. The final reading and vote by the full council is scheduled for Dec. 11. A recent draft of the ordinance is available at the county's Web site, bcgov.net.

Luis Bell, executive director of the Latin American Council of South Carolina, said the immigration debate has racial undertones.

"Beneath everything is a racial problem," Bell said. "This is all subterfuge ... a racial campaign to persecute immigrants."

Bell wants this to be a racial issue so bad. He really thinks, if he says it enough, it will become true. Bell, that only happens in fairy tales.

The businesses that are supporting the illegal aliens are businesses that hire them. Construction, restaurants, farming, hotels...

The very people supporting the illegal aliens are the people contributing and directly causing illegal immigration. They are the lure and they are law breakers.

They can imply things about citizens wanting the laws enforced but our claims against them can be substantiated time and time again.

Dixie