To Be Announced...

Mayor John Nieland...meet Mayor Lou Barletta.

These two guys should get together and have a chat. Mayor Lou Barletta is the mayor of Hazelton, Pennsylvania. He's the guy that started the ball rolling against illegal immigration among cities last year. Barletta drew national attention last summer when he introduced the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which seeks to punish landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and employers who hire them. The ordinance would also make English the official language of Hazleton.

As far as I know, Mayor John Nieland of Marion isn't proposing anything like that...he just wants to train a police officer to help enforce the law against illegal immigrants. He hasn't proposed any type of ordinance banning anything...or even close to what Mayor Lou Barletta is attempting.

I say attempting because opponents of the crackdowns have fought back, mounting a half-dozen legal challenges in places like Hazleton and some of the other 27 cities that have tried the same thing.

Recently, Mayor Lou Barletta spoke out on his "controversial" ordinance:

"If you pass an ordinance like this, you're going to be called names like you've never been called in your life," Barletta said. "There were not many elected officials who were willing to stand by my side when I first did this. It was very difficult to get any high-level official to support what I was doing."

Hazleton's ordinance has been blocked by a federal judge and is pending court challenge. Barletta said the case, which has been challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, could go before the U.S. Supreme Court. Among the biggest legal problems for Hazleton, he said, is that courts have refused to disclose the names of plaintiffs pressing charges against the city. Some of the plaintiffs are believed to be illegal immigrants.

"The judge is not even allowing us to appeal that decision. Plaintiffs that are suing us, most of them have gone under the name of John and Jane Does," Barletta said. "Surprisingly, they're not even showing up for their depositions."

Can you imagine defending yourself and fighting a lawsuit and not being allowed to know the names of the people accusing you?

To help raise donations for legal fees, Barletta said Hazleton officials have organized a City of Hazleton Legal Defense Fund through its Small Town Defenders campaign. So far, Barletta said, the fund has generated about $80,000 in donations.

"Illegal is illegal. There's no race in illegal," Barletta said. "A lot of people probably assumed that our little town would back down and roll over. Well, some things are worth fighting for, and we will never back down."

I hope Mayor Nieland DOESN'T back down. He's in pretty good company...

Northern Arizona town to consider radical immigration proposal

PHOENIX (AP) - Leaders in a northern Arizona town hope to discourage illegal immigrants from living in their community through a proposal that would strip employers and landlords of their business licenses if they hire or rent to illegal border-crossers.

Missouri bill would block illegal immigrants in hiring, renting

JEFFERSON CITY — A bipartisan bill filed Tuesday would set up a new state agency to discourage businesses from hiring illegal immigrants or renting housing to them. Under the bill, the state would establish a Division of Immigration Compliance under Secretary of State Robin Carnahan. That office was the logical enforcer because the secretary of state oversees business registrations and licenses, which could be pulled if violations occurred.

Maybe somebody should start working on a legal defense fund for Marion.

From the Mayor's office website: Mayor John Nieland, maybe just send him an email of thanks and support.

mayor@cityofmarion.org

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Labels: illegal aliens, marion