Friday, July 27, 2007

A local angle on the battle over illegal immigration

A local municipality called Hazleton had recently enacted a law which imposed stiff fines on businesses who were found to have employed illegal aliens. Of course, those in favour of amnesty and the Open Borders crowd immediately challenged the constitutionality of the law, and yesterday, a federal judge in Scranton, Pennsylvania, struck it down on the grounds that immigration issues are solely within the purview of the federal government: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20070727_Court_voids_Hazleton_law.html.

I have a question for the judge. What are we supposed to do when the federal government has completely abdicated its responsibility on this issue? And to the extent that Washington is "addressing" the problem, it is generally acting against the interests and wishes of the vast majority of the country.

The Mayor of Hazleton has vowed to appeal, and I hope that he does. This is too important to just give up now.

3 comments:

Serket said...

The judge and the ACLU who carried this case do seem pro-amnesty. I do wonder if the argument is a legitimate one though about the Federal government. Let's hope this goes to the Supreme Court and Kennedy chooses wisely. Are New Haven's laws violating any Federal ones?

charlesclarknovels said...

There has to be uniformity across the nation when we're dealing with immigration issues. Imagine the chaos if every community had different standards and wide variations of sanctions. The judge and the ACLU are right.

www.charlesclarknovels.com

Bald Headed Geek said...

I understand your point, Mr. Clark, but laws such as this one are a reaction to the fact that the Federal Government isn't doing anything of substance to deal with the issue. Were it doing so, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

BHG