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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: ACLU Maria Archuleta, ACLU National, (212) 519-7808 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org Sara Mullen, ACLU of Pennsylvania, (215) 592-1513 x 122 |
Hazleton, PA Anti-Immigrant Law Is Unconstitutional, Federal Appeals Court Rules
PHILADELPHIA - September 9 - The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit today issued a sweeping
decision striking down as unconstitutional the city of Hazleton's law
that would punish landlords and employers who are accused of renting to
or hiring anyone the city classifies as an "illegal alien."
The case, Lozano v. Hazleton,
has been closely watched across the country because the Hazleton
ordinance has served as a model for similar laws nationwide and was
challenged by civil rights groups in a lengthy trial. The suit has been
underway for more than four years in the federal district and circuit
courts. Today's unanimous appeals court decision is the latest legal
victory against discriminatory state and local laws that target
immigrants and invite racial profiling against Latinos and others who
appear "foreign." Many cities like Fremont, Nebraska and Summerville,
South Carolina have voluntarily tabled or blocked these laws under legal
pressure and local opposition.
"This is a major defeat for the
misguided, divisive and expensive anti-immigrant strategy that Hazleton
has tried to export to the rest of the country," said Omar Jadwat, a
staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants'
Rights Project. "The Constitution does not allow states and cities to
interfere with federal immigration laws or to adopt measures that
discriminate against Latino and immigrant communities."
Hazleton adopted its first
anti-immigrant ordinance in August 2006. A civil rights coalition
including the ACLU, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, LatinoJustice PRLDEF, the
Community Justice Project and the law firm Cozen O'Connor immediately
filed a lawsuit challenging the law on behalf of Hazleton residents,
landlords and business owners. Today's ruling upholds a July 2007 ruling
by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
concluding that the Hazleton ordinances were preempted by federal law
governing immigration.
"Hazleton's discriminatory law
decimated a town that used to be bustling with life and commerce," said
Vic Walczak, Legal Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania and a lead
attorney in the case. "Divisive laws like these destroy communities and
distract from the very real problems that local governments are facing
across the country. Immigration reform needs to come from the federal
level. Local ordinances like these have a toxic effect on the community,
injecting suspicion and discriminatory attitudes where they didn't
previously exist."
During the trial, Hazleton officials
claimed that undocumented immigrants were responsible for bankrupting
the city, driving up healthcare costs and increasing local crime. In
fact, the evidence at trial showed that from 2000-2005, Latino
immigrants actually helped to transform a huge city budget deficit into a
surplus, that the private hospital system made a $4 million profit and
that the crime rate actually fell.
"The Latino plaintiffs who brought
this lawsuit knew this law was intended to drive them out of Hazleton,"
said Cesar Perales, President and General Counsel of LatinoJustice
PRLDEF. "The court clearly recognized this danger."
Friend-of-the-court briefs opposing
the Hazleton law were filed by numerous civil rights, religious, labor
and business organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the
labor union coalition Change to Win, the American Jewish Committee,
Capuchin Franciscan Friars, Lutheran Children and Family Services, the
Friends Committee on National Legislation, Legal Momentum, the Lawyers'
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Southern Poverty Law Center,
the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the Anti-Defamation League and
the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Related issues involving state
authority to enact laws addressing immigrant employment are pending
before the Supreme Court in the case, Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria, brought by the ACLU and other groups challenging an Arizona statute.
Attorneys on the case include Jadwat,
Lucas Guttentag, Jennifer Chang Newell and Lee Gelernt of the ACLU
Immigrants' Rights Project; Walczak and Mary Catherine Roper from the
ACLU of Pennsylvania; Shamaine Daniels of the Community Justice Project;
Foster Maer, Ghita Schwarz and Jackson Chin of LatinoJustice PRLDEF;
and Thomas G. Wilkinson and Ilan Rosenberg of Cozen O'Connor.
The ruling is online at: www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/lozano-v-hazleton-opinion
A video with interviews with ACLU attorneys and clients is online at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8vr66MYZn8
More information on the case, Lozano v. Hazleton, is online at: www.aclu.org/hazleton
More information on the case, Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria, is online at: www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/chamber-commerce-v-candelaria


3 Comments so far
Show AllPersonally, I wouldn't trust any government source as they are already biased? Even the academic signatures on the major problem of illegal immigration are suspect--as colleges and universities are well indoctrinated with the crazy Liberal fringe, made up of Professors who lie through their teeth. Quasi government agencies such as the Council of Foreign Relations, has a formidable role in pushing for open borders and unfettered immigration--legal and illegal. The real Democrats have been infiltrated by mass Liberal progressives, which Conservatives will bring them down in November. Although the main issue is jobs and the economy, illegal immigration to this nation has zipped through every state like an unceasing financial fireball. That burning question hasn't fizzled out and is still reigniting in the great state of Arizona, which now has opened that proverbial Pandora's Box.
This began with the suing of Governor Brewer’s administration as a searing example to other states? In Pennsylvania a small town has been inundated from the illegal immigrant annexation of our country, with not aid from ICE chief John Morton.Fremont, Nebraska, Farmers Branch Texas has also been subdued because they don't have the money to fight off personages like George Soros. There are newspapers like the Huffington Post, that would have better be printed in Cuba or North Korea, completely oblivious to the money spent to give public funds to millions of illegal aliens. Then out-of-control SEIU unions that are in collusion with certain politicians to force through another--AMNESTY, giving the high echelon comrades more power--but no individual choices from the lower ranks.
But instead of tampering down the flame the illegal immigration invasion--not LEGAL IMMIGRANTS has enveloped in a conflagration, which cannot be extinguished. Whether it’s the Communist inspired ACLU or in the murky waters of the Democratic leadership proceedings of Senator Harry Reid of Nevada who tried to kill E-Verify. It survived, but only just thanks to moderate Conservatives like Senator Sessions. The second firestorm came to light, when American found out, that Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) authored an revision to the 2006 Secure Fence Act, before the law was even dry to retire the second fence, that would paralleled the first. This first (2) fences commitment would have gone a long way of halting the daily invasion, from across the undermanned border and stopping the suffering of Arizona, Texas, California and even New Mexico's true legal population.
Since the second fence remains just a blueprint, thousands of migrants still cross illegally on our soil. Observe the real reality and consequences to the Liberal aggressive push for open borders at SECUREBORDERINTEL website. Hidden cameras placed by patriotic American continue to show the daily drudge of illegal aliens by the thousands skirting the undermanned US Border Patrol. Not just migrants but incursions by drug cartels managers armed with heavy duty military weapons, alert to any infringement to their cash trains of "drug mules". People intimidated to carry the deadly contraband into America. The politicians on both sides in Washington have decidedly been kept ignorant of the growing border menace or never meant to seal the border. This is the same with entry into America by air travel. ICE or the originator INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) never had any verification method, to know when holders of expired visas had left. Millions of foreign nationals remained and this is a criminal offense.
I suspect the political elites were able to compromise immigration laws, by making illegal entry a civil infraction instead of a felony. MILLIONS OF FOREIGNERS WOULD HAVE HAD SECOND THOUGHTS.ABOUT COMING HERE, IF THEY COULD BE INCARCERATED INSTEAD OF BEING REPATRIATED TO MEXICO OR ANOTHER COUNTRY. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year could be saved for our own benefits, if the second wall had materialized--with unremitting border agent vehicles, patrolling between the two fences on tracks constructed by the Corp of Engineers or National Guard. In many instances expectant females couldn't simply breech both fences, to become a public welfare burden as their hundreds of thousands of babies get instant citizenship. Drug smugglers would not have easy access, with federal watchtowers at interval the whole 1800 miles from one sea to another.
Uncountable numbers would be held between fences and detained. Kay Bailey Hutchinson must take the complete blame, for reducing funding under the 2006 Secure Fence Act and amending the bill. FAIR gives a reasonable but is inclined to give a very conservative dollar amount of $113 billion, for--JUST--federal costs in education, health and incarceration for illegals. Financial institutions offer an estimate of $60 billion dollars for workers transferring money out of the country. In July of this year Los Angeles County alone paid out $52 million dollars for instant birthright children of illegal aliens. One cannot even comprehend the money spent to subsidize the welfare of illegal aliens at the State, county and municipal levels of government? These amounts of expenditures are narrowly focused and don't give a true accounting as the government doesn't want us to know? But look to the costs paid out in your cities and throughout America.
While our country fights bitter battles in foreign land, we have yet to defend our own citizens and legal residents in Arizona or other border states. Bombard lawmakers with your anger and frustration at Washington power brokers at 202-224-3121 NOW-- IS THE DAY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CORRUPTION AND COMPROMISE BY OUR POLITICIANS AT NUMBERSUSA, JUDICIAL WATCH. SAY NO TO ANY NEW AMNESTY, TO OVERPOPULATION IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
The New Colossus
A poem by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"