By Jared Edgerton, Contributing Writer
It’s a good week for Lou Barletta. The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a favorable ruling on the issue that brought the Congressman to national fame when he was still the mayor of Hazleton.
The Court issued a ruling in favor of Hazleton’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance and ordered the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ to reconsider the law, which it struck down in 2007.
The Hazleton Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance, passed in 2006, allowed the city to fine landlords $1,000 per illegal immigrant fount to be renting, and requiring employers to verify a citizens legal status before hiring them. Proponents say the measure was adopted to curb the inflow of illegal immigrants into Hazleton.
The ordinance gained national attention because it was the harshest anti-illegal immigration law at the time. Opponents argued that the law hurt Hazleton, saying the influx of immigrants, both legal and illegal, revitalized the town by bringing in new business. They challenged its constitutionality on the grounds of “Supremacy Clause” stating that it contradicted the existing federal law.
Before the it could be put into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged it. Initially the courts sided with the ACLU.
Barletta celebrated the decision. “This is great news for the City of Hazleton and all municipalities in cities and states trying to cope with the burden of illegal immigration…This certainly is not good news for those that support illegal immigration.”
Attorneys from the ACLU responded to Barletta’s assertion saying “any celebration by the Hazleton officials would be premature. We’re certainly not putting up the white flag. There’s much battle left to be done in this case.”
Barletta believes that the ordinance is on firm ground to be upheld by the federal appeals court citing the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of similar legislation in U.S. Chamber of Commerce versus Whiting.
Barletta has introduced legislation to Congress similar to the ordinance passed while he was mayor saying “I don’t think the [Obama] administration is serious at all about solving our illegal immigration problems.”
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9 Responses
Who could resist that handsome mug?
The argument that illegal aliens are the same people that came into Ellis island is specious at best. Those who wish to blur the lines usually have a motive. The Democrat Party is looking for new Democrats so they support blanket amnesity and the rest. Many of these fine folks crowd our hospitals, care centers and welfare offices and colleges and receive millions(billions?) in tax funded services. Then there’s Illegals voting all over the country for candidates who pay them in tax funded goodies. Colorado for instance where Democrat Jim Hickenlooper was a winner by a whisker. A post election study raised alarming questions about the role of illegal voters in that win. Check out Maryland where citizens pay the highest taxes net taxes in the country and Pols vote for free college tuition for illegals. Some wonder why people cheat on their taxes? Elected officials across the land are playing a game with our money. They have created a voter block who shouldn’t be voting. To control this payola system we must require proof of citizenship for publicly funded services.I believe this country needs immigrants. I support those who follow the law and learn english—the others and their race baiting supporters; not so much.
All I keep hearing is comprehensive immigration reform, comprehensive immigration reform, comprehensive immigration reform. How about some comprehensive ENFORCEMENT reform to get the illegal aliens out of this country?
These people who want amnesty for these illegal aliens better think about chain migration if amnesty is ever granted. This INVASION of the 20 million illegal aliens and amnesty is giving our Country away. Do you really want a third world country? I DON’T!
Get the illegal aliens out of this country and back to their own country where they belong with their families. NO AMNESTY! ENFORCE THE LAW!
Illegal immigration is a cancer, it has to be eradicated not tolerated.
Finally illegal immigration laws can start being enforced by local governments. Traitors to this country have been trying to pass the dream act to educate illegal aliens to take high end jobs from Americans. Plug up the border already. Americans first! No more excuses!
Just another waste of taxpayer dollars, Why not enforce laws alredy made, unless the lawmakers just want to wave their own flag, That is what I call welfare and unproductive overhead, Washington still does not get it,
Bill and Hillarys Health Care 14 years ago to a tune of 2.50 per pack tobacco tax,A Billion A Day !
Obama math (D)
history (F)
Harvard grad with a Nobel Peace Prize ? Earn it !
What would you see yourself as if you were looking thru the Eyes of Almighty GOD ?????????
BECAUSE,
How you Treat others is how God TREATS You.
How you Forgive others is how God FORGIVES You.
How you See others is how God SEEs You.
When you show Empathy for the plight of another HUMAN BEING, God takes empathy in YOUR PLIGHT.
When others slight you and you ignore the call to Vengeance that burns inside, God erases all memory of your failures towards him.
When you SEE THE IMAGE OF GOD in ANOTHER HUMAN BEING, Then the IMAGE of GOD Becomes REVEALED WITHIN YOU.
The way You Judge other HUMANS is HOW GOD Judges You.
All Humans are EQUAL, ALL Humans are created and are the same in Almighty GODS VISION.
What You wish for the other is what GOD GIVES YOU.
Happiness keeps You Sweet,
Trials keep You Strong,
Sorrows keep You Human,
Life keeps You Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing ,
But Only God keeps You Going.
How you Treat others is how God TREATS You.
How you Forgive others is how God FORGIVES You.
How you See others is how God SEEs You.
When you show Empathy for the plight of another HUMAN BEING, God takes empathy in YOUR PLIGHT.
When others slight you and you ignore the call to Vengeance that burns inside, God erases all memory of your failures towards him.
When you SEE THE IMAGE OF GOD in ANOTHER HUMAN BEING, Then the IMAGE of GOD Becomes REVEALED WITHIN YOU.
The way You Judge other HUMANS is HOW GOD Judges You.
All Humans are EQUAL, ALL Humans are created and are the same in Almighty GODS VISION.
What You wish for the other is what GOD Gives YOU.
Happiness keeps You Sweet,
Trials keep You Strong,
Sorrows keep You Human,
Life keeps You Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing ,
But Only God keeps You Going.
How you Forgive others is how God FORGIVES You.
How you See others is how God SEEs You.
When you show Empathy for the plight of another HUMAN BEING, God takes empathy in YOUR PLIGHT.
When others slight you and you ignore the call to Vengeance that burns inside, God erases all memory of your failures towards him.
When you SEE THE IMAGE OF GOD in ANOTHER HUMAN BEING, Then the IMAGE of GOD Becomes REVEALED WITHIN YOU.
The way You Judge other HUMANS is HOW GOD Judges You.
All Humans are EQUAL, ALL Humans are created and are the same in Almighty GODS VISION.
What You wish for the other is what GOD Gives YOU.
Happiness keeps You Sweet,
Trials keep You Strong,
Sorrows keep You Human,
Life keeps You Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing ,
But Only God keeps You Going.
MYTH: Immigrants take jobs from Americans.
FACT: Immigrants create new jobs, and complement the skills of theU.S. native workforce.
MYTH: Immigrants drive down the wages of American workers.
FACT: Immigrants increase overall economic productivity and have no significant effect on overall wages for American workers.
MYTH: Immigrants will cause massive, unnecessary population growth
in the United States.
FACT: As the baby boomer generation begins to retire and the U.S.fertility rate declines, it will be necessary to replace our aging workforce with immigrants to maintain economic growth.
MYTH: Undocumented immigrants do not pay taxes.
FACT: Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes each year, often for services they will never receive.
MYTH: Immigrants come to the United States for welfare benefits.
FACT: The law forbids immigrants from using welfare services.
MYTH: The Government should just enforce the law to solve our
immigration problems.
FACT: Enforcement alone will not solve our immigration problems. The cost would be prohibitive, it would have a detrimental effect on
the U.S. economy, and it would simply push certain immigrantsfurther into the underground economy.
MYTH: Immigrants are not assimilating.
FACT: Immigrants are assimilating at much the same rate as pastwaves of immigrants.
MYTH: Immigrants are more likely to commit crimes than
U.S. natives.
FACT: Immigrants have a much lower incarceration rate than U.S. natives.
MYTH: Workers that come to the United States as temporary workers
will stay in the country once their visas expire.
FACT: Historically, migrants from Mexico worked in the United States for a few months or years, but then returned home. Border enforcement has made that pattern much more difficult.
THE UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS ARE PAYING MORE TAXES THAN YOU THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IMMIGRANTS AND TAXES:
Q: “Is it true that illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes and drain our economy?”
A: As Ben Franklin said, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Like the rest of us, unauthorized immigrants pay taxes on their property and anything they buy. More than half of them have taxes taken out of their paychecks, but because our immigration system is dysfunctional, these taxes are paid under false Social Security numbers. We need a new regimen in which we know who is paying taxes and can ensure that no one is getting a free ride. The only way to do that is to pull unauthorized immigrants out of the shadows and get them on the right side of the law.
Three state-level studies have found that unauthorized immigrants pay more in taxes than they use in benefits. In Iowa, unauthorized immigrants pay an estimated $40 to $62 million in state taxes, while they and their employers contribute an additional $50 million to $77.8 million in federal, Social Security, and Medicare taxes from which they will never benefit. In Oregon, unauthorized immigrants—who are not eligible for any state benefits—pay between $134 million and $187 million in taxes each year. Finally, in Texas, the State Comptroller found that, without unauthorized residents, the gross state product in 2005 would have been $17.7 billion less.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Undocumented immigrants are an important component of the U.S. economy. They meet the labor demand in sectors in which they do not directly compete with U.S.-born workers. The great majority of migrant workers are taxpaying, hardworking, and law-abiding people who are integrating into U.S. society.
The economics of immigration, Stephen C. Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration and someone who enjoys bipartisan support for his straightforwardness, said that by 2007, the Social Security trust fund had received a net benefit of somewhere between $120 billion and $240 billion from unauthorized immigrants.
That represented an astounding 5.4 percent to 10.7 percent of the trust fund’s total assets of $2.24 trillion that year. The cumulative contribution is surely higher now. Unauthorized immigrants paid a net contribution of $12 billion in 2007 alone, Goss said.
Previous estimates circulating publicly and in Congress had placed the annual contributions at roughly half of Goss’s 2007 figure and listed the cumulative benefit on the order of $50 billion.
The Social Security trust fund faces a solvency crisis that would be even more pressing were it not for these payments.
Adding to the Social Security irony is that the restrictionists are mostly OLDER AND RETIRED WHITES from longtime American families. The very people, in other words, who benefit most from the Social Security payments by unauthorized immigrants.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Would Boost the Economy & Help ALL American Workers: As opposed to the mass deportation, enforcement-only approach, addressing and fixing the immigration system in a wholesale manner will be a boon to the U.S. economy and all U.S. workers. That is why both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win created The Labor Movement’s Joint Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Dr. Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda conducted a 2010 report for the Center for American Progress and the Immigration Policy Center that found that “Unlike the current enforcement-only strategy, comprehensive reform would raise the ‘wage floor’ for the entire U.S. economy—to the benefit of both immigrant and native-born workers.” According to the study, granting legal status to undocumented immigrants and creating flexible legal limits on future immigration flows would generate enough consumer-spending to support 750,000-900,000 jobs. The report also found that the mass deportation approach would reduce GDP by 1.46 percent annually, amounting to a loss of $2.6 trillion over 10 years.
“Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ to reconsider the law” The Key word is RECONSIDER, Which means its not a final Decision :). Al So who wants to live in a place like Hazelton? OUCH.
FACTS ARE:
THE UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT CRIMINALS. Its a CIVIL MATTER.
Before you Scream and show Ignorance and Hate at least read the Immigration Law regarding Undocumented Immigrants.
The whole thing is perplexing to people who don’t understand that being an illegal immigrant in and of itself is not a crime. The most pervasive comments made in news stories about Secure Communities go a little like this: “Illegal immigrants are what they’re called — they’re considered criminals by mere definition. Illegals who broke a bunch of laws to enter and live here should be subjected to immediate arrest and deportation — that’s fair for everyone.”
That’s not accurate, but a lot of people have that same misunderstanding — even law enforcement professionals.
During a teleconference last month on the troubles that Secure Communities is bringing to local law enforcement agencies, a few sheriffs on the call commiserated about their misunderstanding of immigration violations.
“I was always told it was a felony federal violation of law and was always under the impression that turning over any illegal immigrants (to ICE) was mandated by federal law — and so did my employees,” said Sheriff Ed Prieto of Yolo County, Calif. “But after we met with the Mexican consulate in Sacramento we learned it’s not. Then I started looking into how many of our people are being deported before trial and I became very uncomfortable contacting ICE for nonviolent offenders.”
Kane County, Ill., Sheriff Patrick Perez said that “90 percent of law enforcement officers believe (just being an illegal immigrant) is a crime, but I learned after talking to an immigration judge that it is just a civil offense.”
Sara Dill, a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration and a member of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Council, explained it to me this way: “States are seeking to criminalize what is only a civil violation in federal law.” Dill said that failing to get a permit for home construction is one example of a civil, not criminal, violation. “Putting illegal immigrants in a criminal context confuses merely being present in the United States without authorization with crimes such as falsely claiming citizenship or identity theft, which are crimes under federal law.”
Everyone knows that of the universe of illegal immigrants, some have committed nonviolent and violent crimes — and everyone believes these should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
But believers of following “the letter of the law” cannot continue equating all illegal immigrants living in this country with criminals, who have plenty of civil rights of their own. That’s not the American way.
I AM NOT SAYING DONT CLOSE THE BORDERS. I AM SAYING STOP THE IGNORANCE & HATE.
Read this whos to blame for our economy, its NOT the POOR MIGRANTS.
300 BILLION$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ are not paid in taxes by USA CITIZENS, WHO CHEAT ON THEIR TAXES THAT’s A TRILLION$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ EVERY 3.3YEARS.
DONT BLAME THE POOR, STOP CHEATING AND OUR NATION IS OK. :):)
What the hell happened??? Lets BLAME THE FOOD PICKING, , DISH WASHING, LAWN MOWING UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH