Vol. 71/No. 30      August 20, 2007

One city ordinance denied business licenses to companies that hire undocumented immigrants. Another set up a city agency to review immigration documents of renters to deny them housing.

In the 206-page opinion, district court judge James Munley wrote that he would issue a permanent injunction against enforcement of the Hazleton measures. He said they conflict with federal law.

“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,” the judge wrote.

“It is a beautiful day,” Anna Arias, president of the Hazleton Area Latino Association, said at a press conference after the ruling. She asked Mayor Louis Barletta not to appeal.

The suit against the act was brought by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). This ordinance was the first of many anti-immigrant measures that have been proposed or passed throughout the country. It has been copied by at least two dozen other municipalities in northeast Pennsylvania.

“This decision should be a blaring red stoplight for local officials thinking of copying Hazleton’s misguided and unconstitutional law,” Witold Walczak, legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, told the press.

Hazleton mayor Barletta has said that the city will appeal the decision in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, and, if necessary, “all the way to the Supreme Court.”

In Hazleton, former Cargill meatpacker Meledy Díaz, who is originally from the Dominican Republic, told the Militant that it has been hard on undocumented workers. Many have had increasing difficulties making a living. She said she now works at a store, and many businesses have been forced to shut down in the wake of the anti-immigrant campaign.
 
 
Related articles:
Illinois ‘migra’ law sparks protest
Immigration agents arrest hundreds in Texas raids
Workers pack Virginia meetings protesting immigration crackdown
New Jersey vigil, protest counter anti-immigrant rally  
 
 
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