Pa. city defends illegal immigrant law

[ellencho]

First federal trial tests local control of immigrants
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:43 p.m. ET March 12, 2007

SCRANTON, Pa. - There is no evidence to back up the Hazleton mayor’s claim that illegal immigrants are destroying the quality of life in his city, an ACLU attorney told a judge Monday at the start of the first federal trial on local efforts to curb illegal immigration.

“Even if illegal immigrants really are wreaking havoc on Hazleton, that doesn’t change the legal analysis” that the former coal town’s crackdown on illegal immigrants usurps the federal government’s role, said Witold “Vic” Walczak, the Pennsylvania legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Hazleton officials last summer passed the city’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act to impose fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny business permits to companies that employ them. A companion measure requires tenants to register with City Hall.

Hispanic groups and the ACLU sued, contending the measures are unconstitutional.

Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri law professor representing Hazleton, said the town has welcomed immigrants throughout its history, from Irish immigrants in the 19th century to Italians in the early 20th century and Hispanics in the 1980s and 1990s.

But after 2000, “something had changed. Hazleton had seen new criminals and new sorts of crime,” said Kobach, an immigration adviser under former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

The city had one murder in 1994 and didn’t have another until 2001, when a killing was allegedly committed by an illegal immigrant, he said. Five more murders were committed in 2005 and 2006, allegedly all by illegal immigrants, Kobach said.

In court papers, Hazleton officials said illegal immigrants have committed at least 47 crimes since last spring, consuming much of the city’s police overtime budget. Illegal immigrants were the subject of one-third of all drug arrests in 2005, and they have driven up the costs of health care and education, the city said.

In response to the ACLU argument, Kobach said Congress had clearly stated its intent that states and municipalities can help the federal government enforce immigration law. He noted that in 1996, Congress asked them to determine the immigration status of anyone seeking public benefits.

The judge barred enforcement of the Hazleton immigration measures pending the outcome of the non-jury trial, which is expected to last two weeks. Dozens of cities and towns around the country have followed Hazleton’s lead.

Clickety (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17576996/)

Como se dice fucked up and racist?

[atlasien]

jodido y racista

or in Mexican Spanish, chingado y racista

They are trying something similar in Cherokee County, which is near Atlanta. The problem with those measures is that since it's very difficult for landlords to discern who is illegal or not, it gives them a strong incentive to deny anyone who looks like an illegal immigrant. Right now "illegal immigrant" = "brown Hispanic" in the public mind, but it could pretty much be any group.

[vsoy]

Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri law professor representing Hazleton, said the town has welcomed immigrants throughout its history, from Irish immigrants in the 19th century to Italians in the early 20th century and Hispanics in the 1980s and 1990s.

But after 2000, “something had changed. Hazleton had seen new criminals and new sorts of crime,” said Kobach, an immigration adviser under former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
*snip*
In response to the ACLU argument, Kobach said Congress had clearly stated its intent that states and municipalities can help the federal government enforce immigration law. He noted that in 1996, Congress asked them to determine the immigration status of anyone seeking public benefits.


Argh! Kris Kobach is ultra neo-con from my area and I'm embarrassed to say that he's a professor at my university. I really can't believe the mileage he's getting as an "immigration expert" because he has no frickin experience period. His election campaign for Kansas House Representative imploded when it was discovered he got money from a white supremist group. I can just see he's doing this to climb the political ladder. :rolleyes: He makes me sick.

Here is article on Kobach and a battle that a law student is waging against him. Interestingly, this is a white woman (and former president of Hispanic Law Student Club) married to a Mexican male who was deported.
http://www.pitch.com/2007-01-04/news/back-to-school/

[angi]

But employing illegal immigrants is against the law, so why is it racist to deny businesses permits for breaking the law?

Honestly, I have absolutely no sympathy for these companies that hire illegals and pay them slave wages just because they can get away with it because there is not enforcement. Sometimes these people are locked in these businesses and not allowed to leave. They literally are slaves. That is wrong. If punishing these businesses for their hiring practices cuts down on this, I am all for it.

[atlasien]

But the laws work WITH businesses to ensure cheap illegal exploited labor. Illegals can get trapped in these situations because it's not easy for them to change jobs.

In fact some specialized visas ensure legal exploited labor. Central Americans legally are imported to the US on special visas to do backbreaking work like plant pine trees. They're tied to their sponsor, so if they want to quit their job, they can get deported.

No one is serious about punishing businesses for employing illegal labor. Conservatives make a lot of noise about that, but those same businesses give them a lot of money in campaign funds. It's much easier and more satisfying to attack the other end of the equation: the illegal immigrants.

[angi]

Please name this visa. I'm not 100% up to date on my non-immigrants classifications but I have never heard of this visa. I am curious as to which visa you are speaking of.

Which laws work with businesses? According to federal law, they are liable for fines, etc. Illegals can't switch jobs because they are illegal, and the businesses employing them should be put out of business. Sorry that isn't the feel good response, but as long as they are illegal, they will be exploited. You're against the legislation that would prohibit business permits from being issued to businesses that hire illegal aliens, which would punish those who hire outside of the law.

[atlasien]

Angi, it's the H2-A visa. http://faq.visapro.com/H2A-Visa-FAQ.asp. The H1-B visa is more known... it covers skilled labor, not agricultural labor, and is used to bring over cheap Chinese and Indian programmers. Although the wages are higher, the principle is exactly the same: it's indentured servitude. The laborer can't switch jobs, so if the H1 job pays them a low wage, they just have to take it. That depresses wages all around for native skilled workers because it's cheaper to hire an H1-B.

I'm not against real legislation punishing businesses for employing illegals. I just know they will never get passed. Or if they do, they will get repealed very soon after businesses start complaining through their lobbyists. The American economy is addicted to cheap illegal immigrant labor. The existing laws punishing businesses are rarely and randomly enforced. Also, the IRS is addicted to the fake taxes they get from illegals. When immigrants sign up for a non-cash job they give a fake social security number; the usual social security/medicare taxes get taken out of that paycheck but never paid paid back to the worker. In fact, this huge illegal surplus is factored into the budget every year.

The only way to solve the problem is establish a national social security database and guest worker program with portable visas and preventative healthcare (the same as everyone else should get). If workers have true rights and mobility in their job, they will move to the jobs that pay slightly more money, giving employers incentives to raise wages for both guest and native workers.

[atlasien]

The H2-A is general agricultural but the pine-planting visa is actually its own number, H2-B. Here is the first part of a scary story from the Southern Poverty Law Center about them.

http://www.splcenter.org/legal/news/article.jsp?aid=8

Throughout the South, men imported from foreign countries are doing backbreaking forestry work under the federal government's "guestworker" program. Denied the protection of the marketplace, these foreign workers are modern-day indentured servants, bound to unscrupulous labor contractors who routinely exploit them. Often forced to mortgage their futures to get here, they are systematically underpaid in jobs as dangerous as they are grueling. If they dare complain, they and their families risk physical retaliation and financial ruin.

Here, in their own words, are the stories of migrant workers brought to the United States from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras to plant trees, thin forests and apply herbicides for timber contractors operating on our public lands and on huge commercial tracts in the South.

Under federal rules, labor contractors who bring in these workers on short-term, temporary H-2B visas must guarantee a minimum hourly wage, or "prevailing wage," which varies based on where the work is performed. To obtain these visas, employers must certify they have been unable to find enough domestic workers.

This system is broken. The Immigrant Justice Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center documented serious, widespread abuse and exploitation of H-2B reforestation workers:

* Workers routinely log 60 or more hours each week but earn substantially less than the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, and certainly less than the "prevailing wage" required for H-2B reforestation workers.

* Workers are not paid federally required overtime and often are forced to pay for their own work tools, visas and travel expenses -- in violation of the law.

* Some employers seize workers' passports and other identity documents upon their arrival, and many require workers to leave the deeds to their homes with recruiters in their home countries. These practices create a captive workforce unlikely to complain about wages and working conditions.

* Workers often suffer terrible accidents on the job, but few receive workers' compensation benefits. Workers commonly are driven long distances at high speeds without sufficient seat belts. Many have lost their lives in van accidents.

[...]

Part I: The Recruitment
When they are recruited in Mexico, Guatemala or other countries, H-2B forestry workers typically have to pay large amounts of money in order to obtain jobs. Typically, workers arrive in debt from $500 to $5000. They often pay interest rates on that debt of 20% per month. Many workers are required to leave collateral in their home country to ensure they will comply with the terms of their contracts in the U.S.