11/16/2006 7:00:00 PM Minutemen call for city ordinance Mayor meets with members to discuss what city could do
Hazelton Illegal Immigration Relief Act designed to punish those hiring illegals
KINGMAN - The Hazelton Illegal Immigration Relief Act ordinance penalizes business owners who hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to illegal immigrants. The city of Hazelton, Pa., passed the ordinance in September.
According to the ordinance, "every business entity that applies for a business permit to engage in any type of work in the City shall sign an affidavit, prepared by the City Solicitor, affirming that they do not knowingly utilize the services or hire any person who is an unlawful worker."
Action against a business is taken when the city code enforcement officer receives a written and signed complaint against the business. According to the ordinance, another business, a city official or a resident can submit the complaint.
The complaint must include a description of the alleged violator, what the violator did, and when and where the violation took place.
The code enforcement officer then sends the business suspected of violating the law a letter asking for information on any alleged illegal immigrants named in the complaint. The business has three days to provide the information or its business permit will be suspended.
The code enforcement officer uses the information to search a federal database of all legal immigrants. If the alleged individual is an illegal immigrant, the officer reports him to the federal government. The business then has three days to correct the violation or its permit will be suspended.
The suspension ends one day after an attorney from the business submits a sworn affidavit stating that the violation has ended. According to the ordinance, "the affidavit shall include a description of the specific measures and actions taken by the business entity to end the violation, and shall include the name, address and other adequate identifying information of the unlawful workers related to the complaint."
In a case where two or more illegal immigrants are found at a business, the business must not only submit an affidavit but must also enroll in a federal program called the Basic Pilot program, that provides information on immigrants in the United States.
The Basic Pilot program lets employers check the immigration status of their employees or potential employees. The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act requires employers to check the immigration status of all new employees. For many years, employers found it difficult or tedious to verify immigration documents through the federal government. Some employers didn't even bother checking if the documents were real or fake.
In 1997, the federal government instituted three pilot programs designed to make verifying immigration status easier for employers. Out of the three programs, the Basic Pilot program survived. The program was updated in 2004.
The program allows employers to send information collected during the hiring of a new employee, including Social Security numbers, personal information and other items to the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. The information is sent over the Internet to the departments and is usually confirmed in 24 hours.
If the information cannot be confirmed, a notice is sent to the employer. The employer must then verify within 10 days that all the information sent to the Basic Pilot program is correct and resubmit the information. If the correct information is not sent or cannot be verified within the 10-day window, then the potential employee receives a final "non-conformation" work status.
After a second violation of the ordinance, the business's permit will be suspended for 20 days and a sworn affidavit must be submitted to the code enforcement officer. All the information concerning the violation will then be sent to the federal government.
The ordinance also requires that all city agencies and any companies that do work for the city must enroll in the Basic Pilot program.
The ordinance also makes it unlawful for a business to fire or layoff an employee who is a lawful worker in the United States if the business is found to be employing an illegal immigrant and is not part of the Basic Pilot program.
If a business is found guilty of firing or laying off an employee while employing an illegal immigrant, the business must pay the employee three times the actual damages sustained by the employee. Damages include but are not limited to: lost wages or compensation from the date the employee was let go to the date he was hired at another business up to 120 days, attorney's fees and court costs.
The ordinance also penalizes landlords who knowingly rent to illegal immigrants. A written complaint must be turned into a code enforcement officer. The officer investigates, collects information and submits it to the federal government to check the status of the suspected illegal immigrant.
The landlord has five days after being notified that an illegal immigrant is renting a unit to correct the situation. After the five days, an officer can deny or suspend a rental license for the unit. During that suspension, the landlord cannot collect rent from the suspected tenant.
After being notified of a violation by an officer, a landlord can be charged with a separate violation for each day the illegal immigrant continues to rent the unit and for each adult illegal immigrant living in a unit.
The landlord can also suffer a separate violation for each day that he does not provide information to an enforcement officer on a suspected illegal immigrant.
The suspension ends one day after the landlord's attorney provides a sworn affidavit to the city that the situation has been corrected. The affidavit must contain information on the measures taken to end the violation and identifying information on the illegal immigrant. The information is then forwarded to the federal government.
For each subsequent violation of the ordinance, the landlord is fined $250.
The ordinance does say that complaints that allege a violation based on race, ethnicity or national origin will not be accepted. It also says the ordinance must be enforced in a way that does not violate a person's civil rights and in a manner consistent with federal immigration law.
KINGMAN - Mayor Les Byram met with members of the Mohave County Minutemen Monday afternoon. The Minutemen have asked the city councils of Bullhead City and Kingman to adopt an ordinance passed by Hazelton, Pa.
Hazelton is a small mining community in eastern Pennsylvania. The ordinance would allow the city to penalize business owners who hire and landlords who rent to illegal immigrants.
The Minutemen appeared before the Kingman City Council on Nov. 6. On Nov. 10, the Minutemen staged a 24-hour protest in front of the Bullhead City Council chambers. The group was protesting a lack of action by the Bullhead Council.
Byram said his meeting with the Minutemen went very well. Each group presented their side of the situation
"It was a very good meeting. I told them that Council did not desire at this time to take any action on the situation," he said.
Luca Zanna, spokesperson for the Minutemen, agreed that the meeting went very well. He said the group was preparing a public statement for the next Kingman Council meeting on Nov. 20.
Byram said he was concerned about the use of city police officers to enforce an ordinance like the one the Minutemen are proposing. The city does not have the manpower to enforce such an ordinance, he said.
"I don't want the Police Department to do the job of the INS," he said.
He did not think it was legal or right for a police officer to enter a business unless a crime had been committed. "I don't want officers bugging business owners," he said.
Byram was also concerned about possible legal issues with the ordinance. The city of Hazelton is currently fighting lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and several Hispanic organizations.
So far Hazelton has not had to enforce its Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance, said Joe Yannuzzi, president of the Hazelton City Council. The city passed its ordinance in September and has been the press spotlight since July.
Yannuzzi said the city has seen a marked decrease in the amount of illegal immigrants in the area since the ordinance went into effect. He said he has heard reports of people leaving in the middle of the night, reports of a decrease in the amount of crime, and he no longer sees people hanging out on corners. "We didn't have to enforce it. They packed up their little bags and left," he said.
Yannuzzi was unable to give any solid figures on how many illegal immigrants have left or how much crime has decreased in the area.
He said the ACLU and other parties involved with the lawsuit are claiming that Hazelton is trying to set immigration law and that the law targets Hispanics immigrants.
The ordinance does not target one specific group of illegal immigrants, he said. It targets immigrants from any country that illegally enter the United States and work and rent illegally in Hazelton, he said.
Only the federal government can set immigration law. Hazelton is simply setting local business laws, he said. The reason Hazelton decided to create the ordinance was a major increase in the amount of violent crime in the past two years, Yannuzzi said.
The city has also seen its population skyrocket, he said. The city has had to build one new school, added on to several of the existing school buildings and is making plans to build another new school. It currently has one high school; six elementary schools and one junior high school that hold the entire ninth-grade class.
Yannuzzi said since the ordinance has gone into effect politicians have started talking. "It's (immigration) a national and international issue," Yannuzzi said. Policymakers from around the country and outside of the country have visited Hazelton to speak to its Council about the ordinance. The city has had representatives from Germany, Italy, Japan and other countries visit.
"It's the only way we're going to get something done. All we are trying to do is protect our town. There has to be some kind of program," Yannuzzi said.
Zanna echoed many of Yannuzzi's comments. There are two different ways to handle the illegal immigrant situation. You can either deal with it once it is too late and problems like rising crime and other issues have already started. Or you can attempt to prevent the situation from starting in the first place, he said.
Kingman is in a much better situation than most places. Zanna said he is starting to see an increase in the rate of crime, a decrease in the value of property in some areas and other problems in Kingman. These problems are similar to ones he saw in California before he moved to Golden Valley, he said.
He said he realizes that the city Police Department is understaffed. All the city would need to do is have the code enforcement officer check on illegal immigration complaints. "This isn't a police operation," he said.
The fines collected by the city through the ordinance would help the financial situation of the city, he said.
"Every city has a duty to protect its citizens," Zanna said. If every city adopted the ordinance then most of the country's illegal immigration problems would be solved. The illegals would just go back to where they came from.
He said a lot of people in Kingman are upset over the illegal immigration issue.
Byram said the city probably does have some illegal immigrants, but he is unsure of how many or where they are. He doesn't think that it is a major problem here.
Vice Mayor Dave French said he felt illegal immigration is a federal issue and not a city issue.
Councilman Kerry Deering said the problem would be enforcing the law. It doesn't seem to be that big of a problem in Kingman. "I like the fact that people are involved. I'm proud of them for taking a stand," Deering said. However, chaining themselves to the city complex in Bullhead was not the way to get a point across, he said. Deering also questioned whether adopting the ordinance would open the city up to lawsuits similar to Hazelton.
Councilwoman Janet Watson said she had not had time to weigh both sides of the situation. She said she was keeping an open mind on the idea but was worried about the lack of funds and the people to enforce the ordinance. Both Byram and members of the Minutemen will make statements about the issue at the next Council meeting at 6 p.m. Monday in the City Council chambers at 310 N. Fourth St.
Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Article comment by:
nicole mcclure
I think the law is wonderful for the rest of us that are stuck unemployed because the illegals work for a lot cheaper. The main people that are upset are the Mexicans and the employers that cant pay someone a lower rate any more. It isn't a big problem here now but trust me it will be specially if they know we will employ them....
Posted: Thursday, March 15, 2007
Article comment by:
Gloria Lund
Thank god you have a major that will try and stand up to this illegal immigration problem. Our goverment is selling us down river.
