Barletta team vows appeal (Hazleton Standard-Speaker)

By L.A. TARONE
Staff Writer

A disappointed yet undeterred Mayor Lou Barletta called the federal ruling striking down the city’s illegal immigration law a “slip, not a fall.”

“This fight is far from over,” the mayor said Thursday. “Hazleton will not back down.”

Kris Kobach, a part of the city’s legal team that defended the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, joined Barletta on the steps of city hall about three hours after U.S. District
Judge James M. Munley handed down his decision.

Kobach termed the ruling “the paradigm of judicial activism,” and pledged he would argue the city’s case through the court system for free if necessary.

Kobach picked apart the 206-page decision. He called the ruling “extraordinary” and said it “will not stand up under appeal.”

Barletta and Kobach vowed the city will appeal the decision to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

“Today’s decision shows the size challenge a small city like Hazleton, Pennsylvania, faces when it chooses to take on the powerful, well-funded special interest groups and lobbyists,” the mayor said. “As we have seen over the past week or so both in Hazleton and around the country, illegal immigration is a very important issue to many, many Americans. Sadly, today’s decision sends the wrong message to elected officials in Washington and elsewhere.”

The ruling did not catch the city by surprise, the mayor and his attorney said.

“It was clear we were not only battling (the plaintiffs in the case), but a hostile court as well,” Kobach said.

Kobach pointed to Munley’s decision to allow 10 plaintiffs in the country illegally to file anonymous depositions rather than testify as an example. He said the decision allowed them to “do things a legal U.S. citizen cannot do.”

“A legal U.S. citizen cannot sue a city and remain anonymous,” Kobach said. “But that is what this judge has allowed in this case.”

Several other decisions in aspects of the case served as notice the city would be an uphill battle, Kobach said.

“The judge bent over backwards to find fault with the city,” he said.

Munley’s opinion that the ordinance upset a balance between illegal and legal immigration and that it might harm foreign relations are other examples of blatant activism, Kobach said.

“The judge is saying City Council should have considered how other countries felt before they acted,” Kobach said. “That’s a perfect example of activism.”

Kobach said Munley’s opinion that a Civil War-era law that allows people in the country, legally or illegally, to enact tenancy contracts takes precedent over later laws. Kobach said it “trumps all succeeding laws.”

In addition, Kobach pointed to Munley’s opinion that no one is in the country illegally unless or until a federal immigration judge so rules – an argument Kobach said had been rejected by other courts of appeals.

Kobach feels the “extraordinary” opinion will make it easier for the city to appeal the federal judge’s ruling.

“This is not a place where we did not expect to be,” he said. “We expected to be down at halftime. But we expect to win in the end.”

The city will file an appeal sometime within the next 30 days, Kobach said. The court might accept briefs within five or six months, hear oral arguments within nine months and render an opinion within six to 12 months.

The case would be decided by a three-judge panel, though either side could request a hearing by the entire court, which seats 12 judges, including former attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Mike Fisher and Gov. Ed Rendell’s wife, Marjorie.

Heated exchange
The press conference featured two exchanges between Barletta and opponents of the law.

El Mensajero publisher Amilcar Arroyo, who was hassled during a rally supporting the ordinance in June, asked whether appealing the decision, and the ordinance itself, was the right thing to do. As Barletta answered that he believed it was, Arroyo interrupted, asking, “Is what happened to me right?”

As Barletta continued his answer, Arroyo asked the question several more times until Barletta said, “No, Amilcar. What happened to you was not right.”

“Thank you, Mr. Barletta,” Arroyo replied.

Activist Anna Arias clashed with the mayor regarding funding for the continued legal battle.

“Why will you continue to use taxpayer money to pay for this?” she asked.

Barletta said that he didn’t think taxpayer money should be spent on people who pay no taxes, referring to illegal immigrants.

Arias said many pay taxes. Barletta answered that while 55 percent do, 45 percent do not.

When Arias asked what will happen when the city’s legal defense fund runs out of money, Kobach said he’d defend the city’s case for free.

“Please, stop this while you can,” Arias said.