Hazleton, Pa., has become the unlikely ground zero for the illegal immigration issue with the passage of an ordinance last month making landlords who rent to undocumented immigrants subject to a $1,000-per-day fine and revoking for five years the business license of an employer who hires illegals. As Hazleton Mayor Louis J. Barletta, puts it, “I will get rid of the illegal people. It’s this simple: They must leave.” In the process, though, he has drawn litigation from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. The tough approach will appeal to many Americans, but illegal immigration is a federal problem that calls for a federal response.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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54 Comments
This may be a grass roots movement that will sweep across the country. This mayor might just find himself on the road to national politics!
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund!!???
What the hell are Puerto Ricans worried about? They’re a commonwealth of the U.S. for Pete’s sake! They don’t need working visas or green cards or even passports to come here?
But I understand that the ACLU would get involved cuz they’re un-American snakes in the grass.
Fight illegal immigration now! The Palestinians welcomed their immigrants, and look where it got them!
But the feds aren’t doing anything about it. That’s the problem. SO yes, I do support any town or state that is seeking to make it harder for illegals to plop down camp in the US.
A Somali arrives in Minneapolis as a new immigrant to the United States.He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, “Thank you Mr. American for letting me in this country, and giving me housing, food stamps, free medical care and free education!”But the passer-by says “You are mistaken, I am Mexican”.The man goes on and encounters another passer-by. “Thank you for having such a beautiful country here in America!”The person says “I no American, I Vietnamese.”The new arrival walks further, and the next person he sees he stops, shakes his hand and says “Thank you for the wonderful America!” That person puts up his hand and says “I am from Middle East, I am not an American!”He finally sees a nice lady and asks suspiciously, “Are you an American?” She says, “No, I am from Russia!”So he is puzzled, and asks her, “Where are all the Americans?”The Russian lady looks at her watch, shrugs, and says…”Probably at work!”
BIGOTRY is so funny. HA HAHas Archie Bunker returned?
If 911 taught us anything it is all levels of government and civil society must work together to solve our problems. If it is okay to have private citizens turning in people who park in handicap parking spaces or turning in their neighbor if they buy their car tags in Oklahoma it should be fine and dandy to turn someone in for breaking our immigration laws. One of the reasons we have such blight in many neighborhoods is because people do not cooperate enough to finger the meth dealers and drug addicts in our society. I can walk into any number of blue collar eateries this morning and point out to anyone waitresses who are obviously meth addicts as well as walk onto any number of taxpayer funded construction projects and point out people who undoubtedly are here illegaly. It is attitudes like Rhonda Holmans that cost our communities dearly. It’s not my problem is a common theme that has to change. All of these problems are not unto an island themselves, they are all connected in a very real way. Approximately 70% of the meth that is destroying this community comes across the southern border. I hear complaints that Wichita doesn’t have enough skilled aircraft workers. That may be true, not because the people arent here it is because so many men and woemen are so addicted to meth they can’t function well enough to hold an aircraft job. Illegal immigration and higher taxes for schools, jails, judicial system, lower or stagnant wages for unskilled workers, higher costs for hospital are all connected and affect people, real people in local communities not the federal government. It is arrogant for someone on the Eagle staff to downgrade illegal immigration to only a federal problem. We have the personnel on staff right now to put a big dent in the illegal immigration and meth problem, it is our local law enforcement and citizenry. The police can’t give everyone who violate our traffic laws a ticket, however that does not stop them from writing tickets to those they do catch. Its not my problem isn’t a worthy answer for a politician or a journalist.
jw, how ’bout you be in charge of that, OK?
“but illegal immigration is a federal problem that calls for a federal response.”Posted by Rhonda Holman
Rhonda, I know that this will come as a surprise to you but the federal government is not doing its job.
You might want to get your news from more than just the Eagle so you will know what is going on.
I think jw’s argument makes sense. An active citizenry is at the heart of republicanism. Or it used to be anyway.
In a recent survey taken in LA 37% of the respondents cited illegal imigration as the numberone problem in the US.
54% said, “No habla.”
Hank
The Iraq war will look like a little skirmish if something is done at the federal and state level about immigration soon. George W. has poured billions of dollars into a foreign land when our own country is being blatantly invaded. That’s good leadership?
I don’t understand the mental handicap that some people have when they equate anti-illegal immigrant sentiment with racism. If you can’t understand the dichotomy that exists between anti-illegal immigrant sentiment from someone being anti-Hispanic, then you really are a moron and you belong in a circus!
Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund gets involved…These are exactly the kind of idiots I’m talking about!
See this article from _The Nation_:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060828/editors3
This is a fascinating article and touches on why adherents to the New Nativism can have ideologies that range from Ian to JR:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060828/moser
A history of Nativism in our great country:
http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20060828&s=tichenor
Will–
The ACLU is un-American? Yup, they want to support that damn un-American first Amendment. “The Constitution is just a g-d-ed piece of paper.” George W. Bush
Hank–
You’re just mad that illegal immigrants speak two languages better than Dubya speaks English . . .
Sorry for all the posts to _The Nation_, but a newly found bomb-throwing liberal neighbor has been giving me his old copies of this magazine. My neighbor and his wife are giving me new hope for continued living in Wichita.
R. Lago–
Most Americans have to go to work, you’re right.
Isn’t it nice that Bush is on vacation again?
Hey, Steven, I’ll send you my “Progressive Populists” after I read them.
It’s a month’s worth of Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins and many others.
You know, the ones that The Eagle COULD run but don’t . . .
I don’t care how ‘nice’ these people are. If they aren’t ‘nice’ enough to respect our laws and our national sovereignty then I’m not going to act ‘nice’ about the whole rotten issue of ILLEGAL…. ILLEGAL…. ILLEGAL… Immigration.
Capn,When you defend NAMBLA, then yeah, you’re un-American in my book!
The Nazis had a solution to “foreigners” they didn’t like.
They called it “the final solution” actually.
Look, illegal immigration is a problem that we should deal with.
Is it our biggest problem?
Not even close.
Dependence on middle eastern oil, getting out of Iraq, paying down the national debt without causing a depression, making health insurance and drugs affordable, more and cheaper housing, creating good jobs with a living wage.
These are issues that are way bigger than a few million illegals out of 300 million people.
Ditto to that CapN
Capn,When you defend the Christian Coalition and have conservatives like Bob Barr working with the ACLU then you’re un-American in my book!
Not really thought, conservatives just think the Constitution applies to them and everyone else should be thrown in concentration camps like America did to Muslims, Japanese-Americans, Native Alaskans and Filipinos.
Will, you got a link to that?
BTW, EVERYBODY defends speech they like. Saddam Hussein, Stalin, and Hitler defended people’s right to say things that they AGREE with.
It’s one’s willingness to defend speech that one DISAGREES with that defines true freedom of speech.
CapN, I can’t stay ahead of you on this string, you go sir.
Capn,Go to google.com and type in
ACLU defends NAMBLA
Feel free to peruse to your hearts content!
Doug,I guess in your interpretation of the Constitution you have arrived at the understanding that grown American men have the right to sexually assault little boys. Nice to know where you stand buddy!
Americans threw Filipinos in concentration camps? Ok, you’ve done either one of two things:1.You confused Americans throwing Filipinos into concentration camps with the Japanese Imperial Army throwing Filipinos into concentration camps.OR…2.You posted your previous comment right after snorting a pound of crack cocaine.
I’m thinking number 2. =)
No Will, everyone has a right to legal representation and to address the government arguing their grievances. It’s in the Constitution, you may try looking it up.
CapnAmerica, Bush is either out of town or “out to lunch” amd America is “OUT OF LUCK!”
Here’s what Will was talking about:
“What the ACLU does advocate is robust freedom of speech for everyone. The lawsuit involved here, were it to succeed, would strike at the heart of freedom of speech. The case is based on a shocking murder. But the lawsuit says the crime is the responsibility not of those who committed the murder, but of someone who posted vile material on the Internet. The principle is as simple as it is central to true freedom of speech: those who do wrong are responsible for what they do; those who speak about it are not.
“It is easy to defend freedom of speech when the message is something many people find at least reasonable. But the defense of freedom of speech is most critical when the message is one most people find repulsive. That was true when the Nazis marched in Skokie. It remains true today.”
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/protest/11289prs20000831.html
I don’t know the specifics of this. But if the website material was illegal, it should be prosecuted. If it isn’t illegal, then it is protected free speech.
Will, are you ignoring the history of the Spanish American War? Goodness, what do they teach you in Kansas schools? After we started an unprovoked war with Spain and won we received Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philipines and Guam to have as our American colonies.
The Philippines didn’t care for the fact that America didn’t allow for their independence so another war was started which cost more money and more lives than the war with Spain. America killed about a million Filippinos.
Perhaps you were confused by America called the concentration camps as “protected zones”. The name may change but the action was the same.
Samuel Clemens was one of the most vocal critics of the war, another fact that should have been taught in U.S. literature class. I can’t believe they don’t teach one of the major American wars in Kansas schools. Perhaps leaving out such info creates an ignorant populace so willing to relive history with the Iraqi occupation.
“… snorting a pound of crack cocaine.”
Will,at the risk, again, of stating the obvious, one _smokes_ crack cocaine, one snorts powder cocaine. At least that’s what people tell me… I don’t think they’re lying about that, any way.
Filipino American War 1898. After the battle of Manila Bay where Admiral George Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet he moved into Manila and didn’t let the Filipino revolutionaries in. The shooting of a Filipino guerrilla by a U.S. Army sentry ignited a war between the First Philippine Republic that was established on June 12th of that same year, and was characterized by the American media as “pacifying” the “insurgency” in the Philippines. No Doug, I am completely unaware of Philippine-American history. WHen you use the term concentration camps WWII came to mind. That’s why I thought about the Japanese Imperial Army huddling captured American GIs from the USAFFE (United States Armed Forces Far East) into sand pits, rolling oil drums and machinegunning them incinerating the GIs inside. Don’t get me wrong though, America did screw them over by denying them the right to self-governance, but in terms of sheer brutality the Japanese were by far more sinister. Furthermore, the American government has until recently denied their colonialist motives under the guise of “nation building.” So no, you won’t find the Filipino American war in those old history textbooks which they use to brainwash your kids into believing that Europeans founded all human civilization, and that America is the “good guy” and any other country that disagrees with America is the “bad guy.”
CapN,That’s swell you posting the mission statement from the ACLU website. Now try and find another one of the 20,000 websites about the ACLU defending NAMBLA, and please pick one that doesn’t have a pro-ACLU bias.
I love that the ACLU takes on cases that makes them hated. Imagine if all of us suddenly decided that child molesters shouldn’t have the right to a trial. The ACLU defends the lowest of the low in order to protect all of our civil rights. They even defended Limpballs.
MOMMA, I AGREE.
WILL IS LOST IN SPACE
Allow me to reiterate:
When you defend NAMBLA members who killed a boy for not having sex with them, but you harass the military for providing financial support to the Boy Scouts of America then yes I say you are un-American!
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041118-120306-2962r.htm
The aclu has repeatedly failed to come to the defense of deniers of the so-called “holocau$t”, such as Ernst Zundel. Thus, they are hypocrites and not so usefull idiots.
V.L.R.B!!
In the midst of a close presidential race there is a hugely important story that is receiving scant attention. It involves an organization called NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association.
That group is being sued for $200 million by the father of Jeffrey Curley — a 10-year-old boy who was raped and murdered by two men in October of 1997. One of the men, Charles Jaynes, was a member of NAMBLA. Jaynes and his cohort Salvatore Sicari were convicted of the brutal killing and sentenced to life in a Massachusetts prison.
The boy’s father, Robert Curley, and his attorney Lawrence Frisoli are charging that NAMBLA incited the rape and murder of young Jeffrey and have as evidence the diary of Charles Jaynes. In that journal, Jaynes wrote about being influenced by NAMBLA’s newsletters and website which, among other things, gives tips on how to approach and seduce young boys and what steps to take if caught.
NAMBLA’s own self-description says this: “We call for fundamental reform of the laws regarding relations between youths and adults. We believe sexual feelings are a positive life force. We support the rights of youth as well as adults to choose the partners with whom they wish to share and enjoy their bodies.”
In its literature, NAMBLA writers have put forth that boys as young as 8 years old are capable of deciding for themselves whether or not to have sex with adults.
It is statutory rape in most states to have sex with children under the age of 16, but that is not the case in Thailand. Attorney Frisoli says he has evidence that NAMBLA is financing an orphanage in that country which provides young boys to NAMBLA members who visit Thailand.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=19893
Why should the military not have as much of a chance to speak to students as corporations, especially when colleges accept federal funds. The constitution definitively gives the federal government the right to raise an army. In order to keep an all volunteer army, the government needs access to potential recruits.When you file civil suits denying military recruiters from doing there job barring them from potential recruits for the ALL-VOLUNTEER army, then yes, I say you are un-American!
The issue of NAMBLA was a freedom of speech issue. Trust me, I think they’re a disgusting group and pieces of trash, they fall into the category of Phelps and the KKK. KKK members have killed, and yet, their organization is still allowed to exist.
I don’t know what the answer is to people who prey on children. But removing their civil rights is the same as removing my own.
I like Mexicans. I grew up with them. Had Mexican neighbors. As a kid, I played with them. I worked with them starting at age 14. I’ve taught them. My brother-in-law is a full-blooded descendant of Mexicans.
Which is to say my niece and nephews are “half-bloods”. Actually, I don’t know what this means. My brother in law is probably part European. Most illegal immigrant Mexicans are Mestizo, which is to say genetically part Caucasian, part Chinese genetically, mostly the latter, I suspect.
I also had Chinese friends growing up. I like them too.
I’m sort of in the camp of Victor Davis Hanson, who also grew up with Mexicans who were his friends. He sees illegal immigration as a serious problem. The issue isn’t that America can’t absorb people of other cultures. The immigrants to Kansas were mostly backwards denizons of central and eastern Europe who accepted a medieval, superstitious, mythology-based reality, and had no exposure to the Enlightenment. They were recruited here by non-Kansas-inhabiting industrialists who wanted cheap labor to grow grains, and profit by processing the grains and selling “value added products”. In this mileu, Eastern land brokers made money. Railroads made money too. The recruited peasants suffered majorly.
Unfortunately, the Mexican illegal immigrant peasants are being used to displace the progeny of previously-imported European peasants in jobs ranging from chicken-processing to construction.
Some of you may have noticed that street-repair and expansion projects have sign-holding Mexicans, some of whom may be illegal immigrants, doing jobs that are funded by your tax dollars. Are there no citizen-Wichitans willing to do these jobs? So, it may be that our City Council, is authorizing illegal employment, using American citizens’ dollars, including Caucasian, Asian and Mexican heritage people’s dollars.
What some capitalists are trying to do is to create a labor glut, a human resource that like any other resource in excess, is cheap. Is this okay to you? It doesn’t adversely affect me. It doesn’t affect most people I personally know. But it may be adversely affecting a lot of semi-skilled Kansas/U.S. citizens. In California, all public projects must pay union wage. That results in American citizens working on public projects. When you don’t have a union-wage standard, then public, taxpayer-funded projects will seek the lowest labor costs, which are illegal-immigrant level.
It’s really easy to determine, to 99+% accuracy, if someone is an American. Ask where they went to middle school. Check the school records. But in case they are using somebody else’s name give them a 4th grade test of English literacy and American social studies knowledge in English.
For green-card workers, give all greencard workers a social security number. Set up a system for employers to check a national database. If somebody with a specific name and social security number is listed as being currently employed in Texas, a prospective employer should be required to contact the Texas employer. If the potential hire is still working in Texas, and it isn’t that hard to establish, is your employee working TODAY, he or she cannot be simultaneously in Kansas. If the prospective employee IS the real person with the green card and ss number, set up a system for reporting and law-enforcement response to deport the Texas fraud perpetrator.
Good plan Heartlander but the politicians don’t want to fix the illegal problem. If they did – then what wedge issue would take its place to get those voters all stirred up?
Rhonda is correct. This problem SHOULD be addressed at a federal level.
I’d like to see the policies in that Pannsylvania town made the law of the land!
I agree, we should enforce the policies from the Pennsylvaia town immeadiatly.
Except we should make them retroactive. Time to start packing, Wichitans.
When the first white men moved to the confluence of the Arkansas Rivers they were on land that was officially set aside by the Federal Government for the Indian Nations, land that was agreed upon in law in treaty.
After several years of living illegally in this area of Kansas, the government told the proto-wichitans that they needed to move. Delegations were sent to Washington, and the people told them that they had made their lives and homes in this new land, so they should be allowed to stay. And afterall, they were infinently superiour to the natives, weren’t they. So the government relented, and Wichita was officially incorporated as a town.
So yes! Now is the time to act! Down with all illegal immigrants! Excuse me, but I’ve got to make moving plans.
I agree, we should enforce the policies from the Pennsylvaia town immeadiatly.
Except we should make them retroactive. Time to start packing, Wichitans.
When the first white men moved to the confluence of the Arkansas Rivers they were on land that was officially set aside by the Federal Government for the Indian Nations, land that was agreed upon in law in treaty.
After several years of living illegally in this area of Kansas, the government told the proto-wichitans that they needed to move. Delegations were sent to Washington, and the people told them that they had made their lives and homes in this new land, so they should be allowed to stay. And afterall, they were infinently superiour to the natives, weren’t they. So the government relented, and Wichita was officially incorporated as a town.
So yes! Now is the time to act! Down with all illegal immigrants! Excuse me, but I’ve got to make moving plans.
The latest Kinky Friedman telephone poll results on whether or not people who live in Texas think illegal immigration is a serious problem:
> 38% of the respondents answered: “Yes, it is a serious problem”.
> 62% of the respondents answered: ” Lo siento, pero no hablo ingles”.
Tracy, not bad. ‘course Texas was originally a Mexican province.
Illegal immigration needs to be stopped. They have already over run Wichita with the welfare aid and gun fights. Deport them after they spend a year in jail.
Political Mom, is of course, correct. If the current rate of illegal immigration is not curbed, Social Security is going to be nonexistent. I am indeed utterly stupified by the fact that I agree with someone so utterly leftist! Perhaps there is hope for America after all.