City sued over immigration ordinance
ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Hispanic activists and the ACLU sued the city of Hazleton on Tuesday over one of the toughest crackdowns on illegal immigrants by a U.S. city.
Hazleton, a city of about 31,000 people 80 miles from Philadelphia, voted last month to fine landlords $1,000 for renting to illegal immigrants, deny business permits to companies that give them jobs, and make English the city’s official language.
The lawsuit contends that the Constitution gives the federal government exclusive power to regulate immigration and that the city’s ordinance is discriminatory and unworkable.
“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.’ “
Mayor Lou Barletta, who proposed the ordinance after two illegal immigrants were charged with shooting and killing a man, said Hazleton would stand its ground.
“They are attempting to scare the city into backing off. It’s not going to work. We’re not going to be bullied,” he said. “We’re confident the ordinance will stand up to judicial scrutiny and we’ll fight it as far as we have to.”
Frustrated by inaction in Washington, many cities and states have passed their own measures to restrict or punish illegal immigrants and those who do business with them. Some local officials see the Hazleton lawsuit as a test of their ability to take immigration matters into their own hands.
“I believe this will be a landmark case. A line has been drawn here in Hazleton. This will impact cities all across the country,” the mayor said.
Separately, another group of civil rights activists Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Riverside, N.J., a Philadelphia suburb that passed an ordinance similar to Hazleton’s.
The Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan agency that writes reports for lawmakers, said in a recent analysis that federal law probably precludes municipalities from enforcing such measures.
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 say they lost tenants and a Mexican immigrant who says her grocery store and restaurant have fallen on hard times since the ordinance was passed.
It is not clear how many illegal immigrants live in Hazleton, but the city’s Hispanic population has soared in recent years.
The ACLU and other plaintiffs’ attorneys told Barletta they would drop the lawsuit if Hazleton’s City Council repealed the ordinance at its meeting Tuesday night and agreed not to pursue a similar measure in the future.
Instead, the council tentatively approved a substitute ordinance that clarifies some of the language in the original bill but leaves the major provisions in place.