Hazleton's immigrant ban going to court
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Hazleton Mayor Louis Barletta has lost his first attempt to enforce two city laws aimed at throwing illegal immigrants out of town, but he soon will have his day in court.
He and a team of city lawyers will make their case Nov. 13 during a hearing before U.S. District Judge James Munley in Scranton.
It was Judge Munley who issued a temporary order blocking the two Hazleton immigration ordinances that were to take effect yesterday.
The judge said Mr. Barletta had offered no proof for his repeated claims that illegal immigrants were responsible for an increase in crime. In contrast, Judge Munley said, various residents face "the threat of irreparable injury" because of the ordinances.
The laws, approved by the Hazleton City Council in September, would require renters to register at City Hall and pay for a residency permit. This would enable the city to make background checks on prospective tenants. Landlords who skirted the immigration law would be fined and businesses that hired illegal immigrants would lose their city permits.
Judge Munley said he was concerned that legal residents could be harmed by Hazleton's laws.
Brenda Lee Mieles, who is disabled and speaks only Spanish, said she could not get anyone at Hazleton's City Hall to help her with a residency permit. She filed a court affidavit saying she is a U.S. citizen, born in Puerto Rico but now living alone in Hazleton.
"I don't understand how the city of Hazleton and its officials expect its residents and tenants to follow the rules if they are not willing to explain them to us," she said in the court filing.
Mr. Barletta, a Republican who has been mayor for six years, pushed for the laws because he said illegal immigrants were ruining his northeastern Pennsylvania city of 21,000.
He cited the arrest of two illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic in the May murder of a Hazleton man as one reason for the ordinances. Mr. Barletta says illegal immigrants also have been caught in drug raids and with weapons on a city playground.
The mayor predicted that Hazleton's laws ultimately will be upheld by the courts. "We have only begun to fight," he said.
His opponents take the same position. One is Humberto Hernandez, who filed court papers saying the Hazleton laws would subject him to unreasonable demands by the city government and could hurt his business.
A U.S. citizen, Mr. Hernandez owns and rents several properties in Hazleton. He said he occasionally hires independent contractors to make repairs on these units.
"I do not check their immigration status or employment eligibility, as I am not required to do so under federal law," he said.
He said Hazleton's laws would force those responsibilities on him, even though he has no way of investigating contractors or their workers.
Mr. Hernandez and other opponents of the ordinances argue that immigration is the province of the federal government, not a municipality like Hazleton.
Mr. Hernandez said he moved to Hazleton with his wife and three children about four years ago. All are U.S. citizens who saw Hazleton as a place offering a better quality of life than New York City, from which they came.
"I was never able to own any property in New York," Mr. Hernandez said. But in Hazleton, he has bought three rental houses and several rooming units, a piece of the American dream made possible because of the lower cost of living.
Rudy Espinal, president of the Hazleton Hispanic Business Association, said the ordinances have hurt the city's economy, even though they have not been enforced.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Mr. Espinal said the mayor has created a climate of fear among Latinos, even those in the country legally.
"In Hazleton, many Hispanic and immigrant businesses operate along and adjacent to Wyoming Street, a major commercial street. Compared to the bustle that existed before Hazleton started passing ordinances targeting immigrants, often it feels like a ghost town," he said in a court affidavit.
Mr. Barletta, though, said he suspects that many who left were in the country illegally. He said that suits him fine, as illegal immigrants are not welcome in his city.
First Published November 2, 2006 12:00 am
