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November 23

Immigration in spotlight

By Matt Hughes mhughes@timesleader.com
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WILKES-BARRE – Congressman Lou Barletta stumped for one bill purporting to crack down on illegal immigration and condemned another at an illegal immigration forum Tuesday at Wilkes University.

The first bill was Barletta’s own, which he unveiled in June and dubbed the Mobilizing against Sanctuary Cities Act. It would strip federal aid from so-called sanctuary cities that forbid local police officers from asking questions about a person’s immigration status, which Barletta numbers at more than 100 nationwide.

The second, titled the Legal Workforce Act, recently made it out of committee despite Barletta’s opposition. It would require employers check the immigration status of new hires by using the federal government’s E-Verify system, but in doing so it would also forbid states and municipalities from checking an individual’s immigration status using the same system unless the federal government had already done so, Barletta said.

“What it states is that this law; this bill will pre-empt any city from enforcing E-Verify if the government doesn’t do it first,” Barletta said.

Barletta, R-Hazleton, said the bill would negate the advances in the rights of states and municipalities to enforce the law even though the Supreme Court has upheld their right to do so.

Arizona’s illegal immigration law was recently declared constitutional by the court, and the Illegal Immigration Relief Act Barletta enacted as mayor of Hazleton, which was initially struck down but on appeal made it to the Supreme Court, was sent back to the 3rd Circuit Court.

The forum was organized by Brian McElwee, a Swoyersville resident who writes about immigration for Examiner.com. He said he believes the area has “serious immigration issues that we need to deal with.”

“What I want to do is provoke some thoughts,” McElwee said.

Sharing the stage with Barletta was Michael Cutler, a former Immigration and Naturalization Service special agent who testified in the lawsuit over Hazleton’s immigration law.

He characterized the federal government’s inability to enforce the immigration laws currently on the books as a threat to national security but said the solution to that problem is not as simple as building more fences along America’s borders.

Better interior enforcement, including deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes and cracking down on employers who hire illegal workers, is a more effective approach, he said.

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