Federal appeals court strikes down Hazleton's immigration ordinances

In a high-profile Pennsylvania case that helped spark the ongoing national debate over immigration policy, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the City of Hazleton has no right to punish businesses or landlords who hire or rent to illegal immigrants.

The ruling, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, upheld a 2007 lower-court decision prohibiting Hazleton from enforcing local immigration ordinances.

The judges said federal immigration law preempted Hazleton's controversial 2006 initiatives.

"Federal law simply does not prohibit landlords from renting [in the ordinary course of business] to persons who lack lawful immigration status," Chief Judge Theodore McKee wrote. "Nor does federal law directly prohibit persons lacking lawful status from renting apartments."

The ruling sets up a likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We're over the moon," exulted Vic Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Pennsylvania, who successfully argued the case. "Hazleton pioneered a wave of these divisive laws across the country that tore communities apart along racial and ethnic lines."

The appellate ruling, Walczak said, "is a pointed repudiation of such local anti-immigrant laws, and should serve as a warning to other communities considering similar misguided legislation."

But Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who pushed through the ordinances, becoming a folk hero to many, vowed that the fight was not over. Saying he was "not disillusioned" by the ruling, Barletta pledged to take the case to the Supreme Court.

"Hazleton was the first, and became the symbol of hope for many around the country," the three-time Republican congressional candidate said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. "Since I proposed this law more than four years ago, we have seen the growing frustration all across the country."

Walczak said such laws actually "distracted local governments from solving the real problems that they were facing. That's certainly what we saw in Hazleton."

Calls to Barletta's lawyers were not returned.

Already before the Supreme Court is an Arizona law, similar to Hazleton's, that deals only with employment of immigrants. It is expected to be argued in December.

The Third Circuit ruling, Walczak said, "was the first appellate ruling to address the housing issue."