Illegals? Not In These Towns

The old adage says all politics is local. Right now all legislation on illegal immigration certainly seems to be. In Washington, the House and Senate appear no closer to resolving their impasse on the issue. In competing series of hearings, Senators are insisting on a guest-worker plan, while hard-liners in the House refuse to accept any such accommodation. Fed up with all that congressional talk and the lack of national legislation, cities across the U.S. are passing local laws to deter illegal immigrants from coming to town. An ordinance will go into effect this week in Vista, Calif.–a San Diego suburb–that requires employers to register with the city before using day laborers, many of whom are illegal immigrants. They must also report whom they hire. The coal town of Hazleton, Pa. (pop. 31,000), is preparing to carry out the nation’s toughest illegal-immigration law, passed two weeks ago. Hazleton’s new regulations mandate fines for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants and landlords who knowingly rent to them. “Our quality of life is at stake, and I’m not going to sit back and wait for the Federal Government to do something about it,” says Mayor Louis Barletta. “I know that other cities across the country feel the same way.”

Those cities include Avon Park, Fla., a Citrus Belt community of 8,500 that may pass legislation similar to Hazleton’s this week. Kennewick, Wash., will consider an illegal-immigration ordinance this week too. “The government’s not doing enough,” says Kennewick councilman Bob Parks, the measure’s sponsor, who points to Barletta as his inspiration. “I thought, If this mayor has the guts to do this, I’m going to follow suit.”

Funny that Parks should choose the word suit. That’s exactly what opponents of such measures are planning. The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund expects to file a lawsuit shortly to overturn Hazleton’s ordinance, which Cesar Perales, president of the New York City–based advocacy group, says is “unconstitutional and discriminatory.” Perales cites a legal analysis by the bipartisan Congressional Research Service that suggests Hazleton’s ordinance, by creating penalties for those who aid immigrants, may be trampling on an area of law that is under federal jurisdiction. “You can’t have every little town deciding the conditions under which illegal immigrants are going to live there,” he says. For now, at least, some communities seem determined to try.