What towns will do to control illegal immigration

August 14, 2006

Illegal immigrants were overfilling schools, cramming local health clinics and overrunning the playground. That’s what Lou Barletta, mayor of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, a city of 22,000 south of Wilkes-Barre, meant when he said illegal immigration is 'destroying small towns' that don't have the budget to deal with the influx.

Barletta proposed a law to fine landlords for renting to illegal immigrants and punish employers for hiring them. The City Council passed the measure, and Barletta signed it into law in July. Now, the mayor wants to require renters to go to City Hall and obtain a permit assuring landlords that they are in the USA legally. That would require a background check with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Other communities also are targeting landlords and employers. A similar law passed recently in Riverside, N.J., and others are being drafted or voted on in several other communities where leaders have complained for months about inaction by federal lawmakers.

Andy Anderson, a councilman in Palm Bay, Florida, hopes that such actions will 'send out a message and embarrass the people out in D.C.' With a population of 93,000 Palm Bay is expected to adopt a law that would fine anyone who employs an illegal immigrant a minimum of $500.

Similar measures are scheduled for votes in the Pennsylvania towns of Allentown (population 107,000), Shenandoah (5,300) and Mount Pocono (3,000). Local legislators in Gadsden, Ala. (population 37,400), Kennewick, Wash. (61,000), and Escondido, Calif. (134,000), are considering proposing legislation. A bill was narrowly rejected in Avon Park, Fla. (8,900).

Kris Kobach, who once was an immigration adviser to former attorney general John Ashcroft, says it is possible to draft a local ordinance that deals with immigration that will stand up to judicial scrutiny. He has helped several states draft immigration-related bills, including one in Utah that would penalize employers. Four states have passed similar laws this spring: Georgia, Louisiana, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

'States and localities bear a significant amount of the burden for dealing with illegal aliens, but the federal government bears the brunt of enforcing the law,' Kobach says. 'And when they don't, states and local governments pay the price.'

Joseph Turner, an activist in San Bernardino, Calif. (population 199,000), pushed the idea before Hazleton adopted its law. The City Council declined to vote on it, and Turner was unable to gather enough signatures to put it on the ballot. He says passage across the country will 'put enormous pressure on the federal government to come up with a solution that will finally solve this problem once and for all.'

Barletta, meanwhile, says he has been contacted by officials from 30 more towns asking for a copy of Hazleton's law.