US town in immigration spotlight
By Emilio San Pedro
BBC News, http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3983
In July, 2006, the little known town of Hazleton in http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4258 became a key focal point in the national debate over immigration reform.
The council approved a controversial ordinance that granted the city’s authorities extraordinary powers in dealing with undocumented immigrants and those who offered them employment.
The man behind the measure was the town’s mayor, http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3352, who has since become a leading figure of anti-immigrant campaigners in the US.
The law sought to punish businesses that hired undocumented workers and the landlords who rented out properties to them. About a third of the former coal mining town’s 30,000-strong population are Latino.
The law has since been blocked by a http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1303, which declared it unconstitutional.
However, Mr Barletta, a Republican who was elected as mayor of Hazleton in 2000 and is now standing for the US Congress, remains proud of the measure.
He said the proposal grappled with what he describes as the negative impact on the town from the growth in undocumented immigrant population.
“I took action because our elected officials in Washington wouldn’t,” Mr Barletta told the BBC in his office in the city hall.
“As an elected official, I had taken an oath to protect and defend the people of my community and that’s what I had to do.”
For Mr Barletta, the only way to deal with illegal immigrants is to shut them out of American society.
The mayor gave numerous examples of crimes committed in the city which he said were perpetrated by illegal immigrants.
One took place in the town centre after a local high school American football game.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7352847.stm