Town’s illegal-immigrant law overruled

A federal judge threw out a Pennsylvania town’s illegal-immigrant law Thursday in a decision likely to reverberate across the country.

Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act sought to fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and suspend business licenses of companies that hire them. A companion measure would have required tenants to obtain rental permits.

U.S. District Judge James Munley ruled the measures unconstitutional. He said immigration policies are a federal, not local, responsibility and that the ordinances don’t give employers, workers, landlords and tenants an adequate chance to defend themselves.

“The city could not enact an ordinance that violates rights the Constitution guarantees to every person in the United States, whether legal resident or not,” Munley wrote. “The genius of our Constitution is that it provides rights even to those who evoke the least sympathy from the general public.”

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta vowed to appeal. “Hazleton is not going to back down,” he said in a written statement.