Thread: Lawsuit against Hazelton Filed

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Hispanic groups sued Hazleton on Tuesday over one of the toughest crackdowns on illegal immigrants by a U.S. city.

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The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund said the lawsuit is the first in the nation against a city that has passed an illegal immigration ordinance. The group contends the measure is illegal and asked a federal judge to prevent its enforcement.

Hazleton, a northeastern Pennsylvania city of about 31,000, approved one of the toughest measures of its kind in the United States last month, imposing $1,000 fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, denying business permits to companies that give them jobs and making English the city's official language.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs attacked the ordinance as discriminatory.


"It makes every person who looks or sounds foreign a suspect, including those who are here legally," Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "You might as well just paint a target on every foreigner's forehead or a sign saying, 'Please treat me differently.'"

The ACLU and other plaintiffs' attorneys told Mayor Lou Barletta that they would drop the lawsuit if City Council repealed the ordinance at its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night and agreed not to pursue a similar measure in the future.

Barletta said he was studying the lawsuit and planned to respond later Tuesday. Council is working on a substitute ordinance to clarify some of the language in the original bill but planned to leave the major provisions in place.

The city's ordinance inspired nearly a dozen local governments in eastern Pennsylvania - and several more throughout the nation - to consider their own laws on illegal immigration. Local officials will watch the Hazleton lawsuit as a test case of their ability to take immigration matters into their own hands.

Barletta proposed the law after two illegal immigrants were charged with shooting and killing a man. It's not clear how many illegal immigrants live in Hazleton, but the city's Hispanic population has skyrocketed in recent years. Barletta said the measure has already prompted illegal immigrants to leave.

Local and state officials across the country have expressed dismay over Washington's inability to agree on how to change the nation's immigration laws. Like Hazleton, many cities and states have passed their own measures aimed at restricting or punishing illegal immigrants and those who do business with them.

The Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan agency that writes reports for lawmakers, said in a recent analysis that federal law likely precludes municipalities from enforcing such measures.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Scranton argues that Hazleton's ordinance violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution because the federal government has exclusive power to regulate immigration. The suit also argues that it will be impossible for landlords and businesses to comply with the law.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the ACLU and other groups filed the lawsuit on behalf of 11 Hazleton residents and business owners and three nonprofit groups. Among the plaintiffs are landlords who says they lost tenants and a Mexican immigrant who says her grocery store and restaurant have fallen on hard times since the ordinance was passed.

They want a judge to declare the ordinance invalid and assess damages against the city.

Hazleton's law has divided the city 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia, with longtime residents supporting Barletta, but Hispanics largely opposed.

Mexican immigrant who says her grocery store and restaurant have fallen on hard times since the ordinance was passed.

Gee....could that be because you just cater to one segment of the population? Mexican businesses need their just "their" people to survive because they don't seem to get the blend in part yet yet. No one else is welcome or wanted or works for them. Not everyone is enamored by your culture or food or music or language.

I vote for the target on every forehead. We already have to treat them differently.

The problem the accusers have is proving the alleged discrimination and/or the intent of the town to discriminate. It's not as easy as the media makes it seem.

They (the illegals and their supporters) are getting desparate. They are losing and they know it.

Amazing it's Puerto Ricans doing this, I thought they were Americans!


Pro Patria!

If the ACLU and Hispanic advocates win this suit, you will hear me scream all the way from Pittsburgh

Having been sued before on this issue -I don't think my town council will entertain enacting a Hazleton ordinance now...

Any opinions on how long to settle the suit? Six months? A year? My dream is that it is thrown out of court and other cities can quickly follow with ordinances. I think it is the only thing that can save my town.

How dare American citizens want to enforce laws to protect themselves! Where is the ACLU for us! Why aren't they fighting for our rights as citizens! They make me want to puke!
I hope Hazelton kicks A$$

"It makes every person who looks or sounds foreign a suspect, including those who are here legally," Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. "You might as well just paint a target on every foreigner's forehead or a sign saying, 'Please treat me differently.'"

What a lame a$$ statement. If your here legally, you have nothing to fear. It amazes me that these loonies can't comprehend the difference between legal and illegal. Maybe ACLU should stand for Alien Criminal Legal Union.