Our position: Local governments can't -- and shouldn't -- try to resolve immigration problems.

The botched attempt at comprehensive immigration reform has moved from the halls of Congress to the streets of America. It's not going well there, either.

Consider the fallout in Hazleton, Pa., where the City Council pushed ahead with a piece of legal lunacy called the "Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance." It would put the squeeze on all illegal immigrants by fining landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and denying business permits to companies that give them jobs.

One sticking point: It's unconstitutional.

By Richard L. Connor
Times Leader Editor and Publisher

KING RANCH is a beautifully dangerous place.

Majestic and treacherous all at once, it is in the vast area known collectively as South Texas.

KING RANCH is a beautifully dangerous place.

Majestic and treacherous all at once, it is in the vast area known collectively as South Texas.

It is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island, so big the nearest city is called Kingsville. Founded by a river boat captain, Captain Richard King, it is a place of dreams, myth, legend, mystery, as well as hard, cold life-threatening facts.

By Renita Fennick
City Editor

So, U.S. District Judge James Munley thinks that Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta has no business keeping law and order in his city.

In rendering his decision that the city’s proposed ordinances regarding illegal immigrants were unconstitutional, the jurist even granted a permanent injunction preventing Hazleton from enforcing those laws.

So, U.S. District Judge James Munley thinks that Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta has no business keeping law and order in his city.

In rendering his decision that the city’s proposed ordinances regarding illegal immigrants were unconstitutional, the jurist even granted a permanent injunction preventing Hazleton from enforcing those laws.

By Milan Simonich
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In America, land of opportunity, an illegal immigrant can anonymously sue a city and win.

It happened last week in federal court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, where a judge struck down the city of Hazleton's laws aimed at evicting illegal immigrants.

Four of the eight individuals who sued Hazleton were in America illegally. All received protection from U.S. District Judge James Munley, who allowed them to bring their case against the city without being identified publicly.

Judge Munley said he had good reason to allow these four illegal immigrants to remain anonymous as their lawyers fought Hazleton's ordinances in court.

A federal judge has dealt what we can only hope is a decisive blow against a dangerous trend of freelance immigration policies by local governments. Judge James M. Munley of the central Pennsylvania district, struck down ordinances in the town of Hazleton that sought to harshly punish undocumented immigrants for trying to live and work there, and employers and landlords for providing them with homes and jobs.

The ruling was a well-earned embarrassment for Mayor Louis J. Barletta and his proclaimed goal of making Hazleton “one of the toughest places in the United States” for illegal immigrants. In doing so, Judge Munley laid down basic truths that every American should remember.

It was welcome eloquence indeed: "The genius of our Constitution is that it provides rights even to those who evoke the least sympathy from the general public. In that way, all in this nation can be confident of equal justice under its laws."

Thus did U.S. District Court Judge James Munley in Scranton yesterday issue a resounding slap to Hazleton, Pa., and its mayor, Lou Barletta, for an ordinance passed last year that officials in that northeastern community said was needed to curb illegal immigration and crime.

That, of course, was racist nonsense, and an attempt to play local politics with an issue of national concern.

By DIANNE SOLÍS and STEPHANIE SANDOVAL

The Dallas Morning News
A federal judge on Thursday struck down a tough ordinance against illegal immigration in Hazleton, Pa., that has been copied around the nation, including in Farmers Branch.

The emphatic ruling, which mirrored language used by U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay in Dallas in granting a temporary injunction against the Farmers Branch ordinance, may not be a good sign for such laws, some legal experts said.

But Farmers Branch City Council member Tim O'Hare, the driving force behind that city's efforts against illegal immigration, said the decision in the Hazleton case wouldn't stop the fight for the ordinance voters adopted nearly 2-to-1 in a May 12 election.

Daniel González
The Arizona Republic

Business groups taking legal action to block Arizona's new employer-sanctions law were elated Thursday after a federal judge struck down a similar anti-illegal-immigration law in Hazleton, Pa.

The judge ruled that the Hazleton law is unconstitutional because it usurps federal law in trying to control illegal immigration. Two business groups, the Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform and the Arizona Contractors Association, make the same argument in a lawsuit seeking to block the state's employer-sanctions law from taking effect on Jan. 1.

"What this means is that a federal court has reached the same conclusion we have reached in challenging the Arizona law as unconstitutional," said David Selden, a labor lawyer with Ballard Spahr who filed the complaint.

Altoona Mayor Wayne Hippo says it's too early to tell how Thursday's decision to void Hazleton's illegal immigrants law will affect enforcement of Altoona's ordinance, though council will seek a strategy from its lawyer.

The decision from a different federal district doesn't nullify Altoona's action, Hippo said.

It does start a legal process that will force municipals like Altoona to review laws inspired by the Hazleton measure.

Altoona's ordinance differs "like night and day," which may help shield it, Hippo said.

Even enthusiastic ordinance proponent Joe Rieker of the Altoona council blanched at some Hazleton provisions.

Hazleton Immigration Decision
Posted on July 26th, 2007
By Fred in Statements, Immigration

Most Americans want something to be done about the illegal immigration problem we have in this country. They’ve been expecting the federal government to enforce the immigration laws already on the books. The federal government hasn’t done that, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the governments closest to the people – municipal and state – are looking to take action. This is an entirely proper role for these governments.

Back in 2006, the citizens of Hazleton, Penn., were noticing some troubling signs from an increase in illegal immigration in their community. This former coal-mining town was seeing an uptick in the number of murders, an increase in drug-related crimes and a school district bursting at its seams. In fact the tax-payer-funded English as a Second Language program there went from $500 a year in costs in 2001 to more than $1 million a year today.