Illegal Immigration Watch: Pennsylvania City to “CRACKDOWN” on Illegal Immigration

Mayor Lou Barletta stands in his office, Wednesday, June 14, 2006, in Hazleton, Pa. With tensions rising and its police department and municipal budget stretched thin, this small northeastern Pennsylvania city is about to begin what Barletta calls one of the toughest crackdowns on illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States.

AP: City to crackdown on illegal immigration

With tensions rising and its police department and municipal budget stretched thin, this small northeastern Pennsylvania city is about to begin what the mayor calls one of the toughest crackdowns on illegal immigrants in the United States.

“Illegal immigrants are destroying the city,” said Mayor Lou Barletta, a Republican. “I don’t want them here, period.”

Last week Barletta introduced, and the City Council tentatively approved, a measure that would revoke the business licenses of companies that employ illegal immigrants; impose $1,000 fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants; and make English the city’s official language.

As Congress debates changes to the nation’s immigration policy, some cities are taking matters into their own hands, saying they have no choice but to crack down on illegal immigrants themselves.

Barletta said he had to act after two illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic were charged last month with shooting and killing a man. Other recent incidents involving illegal immigrants have rattled this former coal town 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia, including the arrest of a 14-year-old boy for firing a gun at a playground.

“This is crazy,” said Barletta, who took office in 2000. “People are afraid to walk the streets. There’s going to be law and order back in Hazleton and I’m going to use every tool I possibly can.”

Excellent!

Local and state governments can NO LONGER turn the other way and/or blame the federal government for their lack of enforcement action.

Remember Flap’s 4 point plan for illegal immigration:

1. Send the National Guard to the border but allow them to bolster enforcement until more border patrol agents are trained and ON THE JOB.

2. Support legislation in the Congress to fund the training and deployment of additional border agents/officers. Ony when these officers are deployed in sufficient numbers to deter illegal immigration should the National Guard be redeployed away from the border.

3. Support legislation to fund and build physical barriers and walls to physically impede the flow of illegal aliens coming across the border. â€œVirtualâ€ fencing is NOT acceptable alone. There must be REAL physical impediments to the flow of people.

4. Enforce existing immigration laws against employers. Fine them big and jail corporate leaders, if you must. America must be freed from the addiction of cheap Mexican and illegal labor.

Local governments must be involved and local police MUST enforce immigration laws. Flap finds it ludicrous that in Moorpark, California one block from a Ventura County Sheriff’s substation there exists an illegal alien congregation spot for illegal worker “day” employment, yet the police do nothing.

In San Bernardino, Calif., voters will decide whether to adopt a measure similar to the one in Hazleton. Elsewhere, an Idaho county filed a racketeering lawsuit against agricultural companies accused of hiring illegal immigrants. In New Hampshire, a pair of police chiefs began arresting illegal immigrants for trespassing.

“They’re being forced to pick up the financial tab for all of this nonsense and they are doing whatever they can to find ways to combat it at the local level,” said Susan Tully, national field director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates limits on immigration.

Time has come for state and local governments to stop passing the buck. Enforce the laws or vote state and local officials out of office.

Stay tuned……
Discuss this blog post and MOREâ€¦. at the FullosseousFlapâ€™s Dental Blogs, My Dental Forum