Well since we already are fighting wars against:
1. Drugs
2. Islomo-whatevers
3. Poverty
It's time to enter the next major war known as "Illegal Aliens".
And like the others, this one will never end as well.
But unlike the others, this one is starting from the "bottom-up", with the others it all started at the top.
The City of Hazleton tosses the first blow by enacting Ordinance 2006-10
What will it do?
This Ordinance will make it illegal to "aid and abet" an "illegal alien".
Such as:
* Renting
* Giving money for work
* Providing good and services
Do these and it's a minimum $1000 fine.
The thing that really has me scratching my head, other than the effort and money this will cost the city, is the "providing goods and services".
Say this Ordinance was passed by your town.
Are ID's going to be needed to buy a Pepsi at the mini-mart?
If the clerk knows there is someone with a expired visa, trying to buy food, could the clerk be fined?
Another set of questions...
Will you have to ask for legal papers for someone to mow your lawn or deliver firewood to your house?
If someone calls on an ad in the paper for a cord of wood, and the person selling the wood is not a legal resident, can the buyer be fined or serve jail time for employing an illegal worker?
Would the D.A. have to prosecute?
The Battle
As you might have guessed the ACLU is taking the City to Court:
From Reuters
Civil rights campaigners sued the Pennsylvania town of Hazleton on Tuesday, seeking to block one of America's toughest local laws against illegal immigrants.
The suit says Hazelton's City Council violated the U.S. constitution when it passed a law denying business permits to companies that hire illegal aliens and fining landlords who rent homes to them.
The measure, which also establishes English as the town's official language, has made Hazleton a focus of the national debate on immigration. The plaintiffs say their suit is the first in the country to challenge a local immigration ordinance.
The suit was filed in federal court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania by groups including the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union. They accuse Hazleton of overstepping its authority on the federal matter of immigration and say the law discriminates against immigrants.
"This mean-spirited law is wrong for many reasons but the most obvious is that the city does not have the power to make its own immigration laws," Omar Jadwat, an attorney for the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a statement.
Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, a proponent of the Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance, says illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America has increased crime, overburdened schools and hospitals, and eroded the quality of life in the town of some 31,000 people.
Barletta predicted the law would survive a court challenge and said he would take it to the Supreme Court if necessary. "We're not going to be bullied," he said in a statement.
About a third of the Hazelton's residents are Hispanic, up from around 5 percent in 2000, officials say.
I may not like the guy's policy, but he is correct, most likely this will make it's way to the Supreme Court. If it wasn't this town, it would be one of more than 30 others that plan to follow Hazleton's lead. He also says that some of the big money lawyers throughout the Country are offering to take the case, and we all know that the ACLU will not quit either.
This one will go to the bigtime and it should, since the Feds refuse to address this issue. If fact this will work out perfectly, the Repub Congress Critters can sit on their asses and let the lawyers and judges write policy one more time. Then they will have someone to blame other than themselves....Those "Activist Judges!"