"Hispanics Flee Pa. Town Before Crackdown"
No, I’m not being racist here… calm down. The "crackdown" is on illegal aliens per an ordinance passed by the Hazleton, PA City Council back in September that, according to an article at Breitbart.Com
imposes fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and denies business permits to companies that give them jobs. The law empowers the city to investigate written complaints about a person’s immigration status, using a federal database.
Naturally, the hue and cry from the usual immigrants’ rights groups is deafening. It isn’t cutting it in Hazleton, though, as the town, led by its Mayor, stays the course in combatting what has grown into a huge problem in recent years: a sharp rise in immigrants moving to town, many of whom are illegal, and a sharp rise in crime.
Mayor Lou Barletta, chief proponent of the new law, contends illegal immigrants have brought drugs, crime and gangs, overwhelming police and municipal budgets. He announced the crackdown in June, a month after two illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic were charged in a fatal shooting.
Hazleton, PA is certainly not what one would consider a border state, yet it has a serious problem with illegal immigration. What does this tell us? This is a problem for ALL states here in the US. Consider our state’s largest city, Manchester, NH. As of late, a police officer has been killed, and all kinds of violent crime and shootings are on the rise. And it has happened seemingly overnight. Not that all has been perpetrated by illegals, but you can be sure that they are a part of the contributing factors. Maybe a "crackdown" would produce some "collateral damage" to the legal thugs with whom they associate.
.
The Breitbart article reports that even though the "crackdown" in Hazleton starts today, many Hispanics, illegal and, it claims, legal, have already left. The piece doesn’t reveal how many actual legal people have left, but it got me thinking that perhaps there were more illegals there than anyone thought.
.
The lawsuits (naturally) have already begun. Luckily for the folks of Hazleton, PA, they have elected a Mayor with the "gravitas" to see this through.
The mayor said he would fight all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, saying the ordinance is "as bulletproof as we can get it."
Now THAT’S leadership! Mayor Lou Barletta makes no bones about it:
I’ve said from the beginning my goal was to make Hazleton one of the toughest cities in America for illegal aliens. Today, if I was an illegal alien, I certainly wouldn’t pick Hazleton as my home.
Imagine if we applied such sentiment to the entire country? This guy truly sounds like "America’s Mayor"… Hmmm. I wonder what he’s doin’ in ’08?
.
H/T: Drudge
