SBD
Admiral
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 1022
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 Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:53 pm Post subject: Mayor: Crime prompted immigrant law: Relief Act on trial |
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| Quote: | Company: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Publication Date: 16-Mar-2007 14:43:30
Mayor: Crime prompted immigrant law: Barletta details controversial act's origins
SCRANTON -- Hazleton Mayor Louis Barletta on Thursday finally got to tell a judge the story he's been sharing with the rest of the world for the past nine months -- but in greater detail.
And he got to give his critics something they've been demanding for months -- statistics on crime and other factors that compelled him to propose what has become one of the most controversial illegal immigration laws in the nation -- Hazleton's Illegal Immigration Relief Act.
U.S. District Judge James Munley also heard political science professor Marc R. Rosenblum -- an expert witness for the plaintiffs -- testify earlier Thursday how the Relief Act and a related landlord/tenant registration ordinance could lead to employment and housing discrimination in Hazleton.
The professor also testified that the federal database Barletta has said would be used to verify the residency and employment status of tenants and employees is error-ridden.
Defense attorney Kris Kobach, a former immigration law adviser to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, pointed to newer studies than Rosenblum cited that showed the database's accuracy has greatly improved. He also tried to show that use of the verification systems would not lead to discrimination by landlords or employers against Latinos or other immigrants.
The Relief Act and registration ordinances would fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, suspend business licenses of employers who hire them and require city tenants to show proof of legal residency status. City officials have said illegal immigrants are draining city resources and destroying the quality of life.
The American Civil Liberties Union and others sued the city in August to have the ordinances declared unconstitutional.
Attorney Hank Mahoney, of Deasey Mahoney & Bender in Philadelphia, had Barletta explain all the events that led up to the city's adoption of the Relief Act last July. He began with crime statistics -- an issue Barletta has been criticized for failing to address in the past.
Referring to numbers recently compiled by Police Chief Robert Ferdinand, Barletta said the rate of violent crime -- rape, robbery, homicide and aggravated assault -- climbed 60 percent in the past four years, from 52 in 2003 to 83 in 2006. He also said illegal immigrants comprised 30 percent of the people arrested in 2005 and 2006 on drug charges.
Asked if he could approximate the number of illegal immigrants living in Hazleton, Barletta said that was impossible. However, he said "the rule of thumb" is that one-third of all immigrants in the United States "are here illegally."
Barletta said that despite a population hike from 23,000 in 2000 to about 30,000 to 33,000 in 2006, and growth in assessed property values of nearly $1 million, the city's earned income tax revenue remained stagnant. He said that can only mean that many of the city's newcomers either aren't working or aren't paying taxes on their income, which suggests that many are illegal immigrants.
Barletta also said the Hazleton Area School District's English as a Second Language budget grew from $500 in 1999 to $1.14 million today. He said it's common knowledge that most illegal immigrants don't speak English.
As for being a strain on hospitals, he said the Greater Hazleton Health Alliance has "spent millions of dollars to handle the number of people waiting for care in the emergency room." He said wait times for treatment can be as long as five or six hours.
Timeline outlined
Barletta recalled the fatal shooting of Derek Kichline, who he said he believes was killed by an illegal immigrant in May 2006, as "the straw that broke the camel's back," and divulged the events leading up to that event which compelled him to propose the Relief Act.
Barletta said blight was growing in the city, with residents complaining of an increase in overcrowded properties in disrepair, and the city's difficulty in locating absentee landlords.
He and city officials were called to an apartment in which bedrooms were turned into mini-apartments, a refrigerator overflowing with cockroaches and nine mattresses lined up on the floor. Nine illegal immigrants were living there, he said.
That visit prompted the landlord/tenant registration ordinance, Barletta said.
Barletta said the first shocking violent crime he had to deal with was a fatal stabbing in October 2001 during a drug deal gone bad within 100 feet of young adults leaving a high school football game.
The suspect -- Hector Roldan-Luna -- was among 18 people arrested in September 2002 in one of the most significant drug busts in the region's history. It took out an entire drug network that had ties to the Dominican Republic.
Barletta described other violent and drug-related crimes he said were committed by illegal immigrants. He said three illegal immigrants were arrested between 2001 and 2004, five in 2005 and 19 in 2006.
Barletta said he was shocked when he met with Anna Arias and Dr. Agapito Lopez, seeking their support after council gave initial approval to the Relief Act ordinance.
Barletta said he believed he had a good relationship with the Hispanic community, devoting $500,000 for a new playground in the heart of a rundown neighborhood, which was also a mostly Latino neighborhood; he had worked with Latino community leaders to involve Latino youth in sports activities. And he supported Arias and Lopez's appointments to leadership positions.
But when he told Lopez of a 14-year-old illegal immigrant firing a gun near other children at the new playground the same day as the Kichline murder, he said Lopez's reaction was, "Kids will be kids."
Barletta said he doesn't believe Arias or Lopez -- who organized local rallies against the ordinances -- represent the sentiment of the entire Hispanic community on the ordinances.
And, Barletta said, Lopez wasn't the only person to feel threatened for his views on the illegal-immigration issue. He described threatening phone calls, one in which a caller asked, "How will you feel when you die and burn in hell with Lucifer and Lou Dobbs?"
Dobbs hosts a political talk show on CNN -- one of the many national news shows on which Barletta has appeared on the immigration issue.
On cross-examination, plaintiff attorney Vic Walczak told Barletta the defense could find less than 30 arrests of illegal immigrants in files provided by the police chief.
Barletta said the police department didn't begin tracking illegal immigrant arrests until recently.
Walczak said he will address the crime statistics more fully on Monday when Ferdinand is scheduled to testify.
The witnesses
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Here are witness lineups in the Illegal Immigration Relief Act trial in federal court, Scranton.
Thursday
--Marc R. Rosenblum -- associate professor of political science at the University of New Orleans, testified about federal databases used in the interior enforcement of immigration and the reliability of these systems.
--Louis Barletta -- Mayor of Hazleton, testified about the underlying purposes behind the Illegal Immigration Relief Act and other matters addressed in his deposition.
Today
--Sam Montricello -- director of Administration and director of Community Development for the city of Hazleton, is expected to testify about the city's day-to-day operations, budget and finances and matters addressed in his deposition.
--Rick Wech -- a code enforcement officer for the city of Hazleton, is expected to testify about his job duties and the manner in which the city intends to interpret and implement the disputed ordinances and matters addressed in his deposition.
--Paul Kattner -- a code enforcement officer for the city of Hazleton, is expected to testify about his job duties and the manner in which the city intends to interpret and implement the disputed ordinances and matters addressed in his deposition.
--Robert Dougherty -- director of the city of Hazleton's Department of Public Works, is expected to testify about the city's efforts to establish an immigration status verification system with the federal government and its implementation, as well as matters addressed in his deposition.
Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 459-2005. |
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