Locals say immigration rule won't slow them down

Seven hundred miles divide them.

Yet when a judge blocked the get-tough illegal immigration ordinance in Hazleton, Pa., Thursday, the impact jolted Carpentersville and other suburbs struggling to keep pace with burgeoning immigrant populations.

More than four dozen villages, counties and townships nationwide floated similar measures that target landlords and business owners who rent to or hire undocumented workers.

Of them, 22 were shelved -- including Carpentersville's -- until the constitutional merit of Hazleton's law was determined in federal court.

Thursday's ruling puts them on notice.

"It's a signal to other cities that are entertaining these kinds of things," said Juan Salgado, board president of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "They ought to think it through."

U.S. District Judge James Munley struck down the northeastern Pennsylvania town's Illegal Immigration Relief Act.

In a 206-page opinion, Munley said the local measure conflicted with federal law and violated constitutional guarantees to every person "whether legal resident or not."

"Whatever frustrations ... the city of Hazleton may feel about the current state of federal immigration enforcement, the nature of the political system in the United States prohibits the city from enacting ordinances that disrupt a carefully drawn federal statutory scheme," Munley wrote.

Immigrant rights supporters said the ruling sent a critical message at a critical time.

"This helps us really cement the idea that ... welcoming immigrants in communities around the nation is, indeed, the future," said Alie Kabba of the local United African Organization.

An appeal in the case is likely. The Hazleton mayor vowed to continue the fight.

Four states and 712 miles away, Carpentersville leaders who championed an identical proposal last fall did not back down.

"We are not folding up our tent because of this ruling," said Trustee Paul Humpfer, who read the opinion Thursday. "We will make appropriate changes that will strengthen our ordinance."

Bob Sperlazzo, chairman of the Fox Valley Citizens for Legal Immigration, also said Thursday's ruling was one step in what promises to be a long legal road.

"We cannot blink at the first ruling against (the Hazleton ordinance)," Sperlazzo said.

Carpentersville last fall became the first in Illinois to consider cracking down on landlords and employers who knowingly rent to or hire undocumented workers. The ordinance was tabled in a 4-3 decision last October.

Earlier this month, Village President Bill Sarto attempted to suspend talk of illegal immigration at board meetings, arguing the proposal never became official village business.

DePue, on the far Southwest side, also tabled a Hazleton-like measure last December pending the court ruling.

No fewer than 161 local governments floated immigration-related ordinances during the past year, according to a study by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement.

Some declare English the official language of village business, as Hampshire officials did in April and Carpentersville in June. Hazleton leaders also made English its official language.

Others extend government services and benefits to all residents, regardless of their legal status, as Cook County commissioners considered this month.

Chicago's suburbs are home to swelling ranks of residents who are new to the neighborhood and the country. Along with Carpentersville, towns like Aurora, Elgin, Mount Prospect, Naperville, Palatine, Schaumburg and Waukegan are home to the region's largest clusters of immigrants, according to Roosevelt University's Institute for Metropolitan Affairs.

Thursday's ruling will not curb local tensions surrounding how best to bring immigrants into the economic, political and civic fold.

"If Congress doesn't figure out how to address this soon, every time you cross a municipal boundary, you'll be governed by a different set of rules," said Rich Stolz of the Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C.

National lawmakers remain stalled in dealing with the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants. So long as a stalemate exists, organizers caution, local villages, counties and townships will tackle an issue far beyond their traditional duties.

"You're going to be seeing more and more of that because the feds just aren't stepping up," said Dave Gorak of the Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration.

Still, federal inaction does not legally pave the way for local enforcement, Carpentersville's Sarto said. Sarto opposed the Hazleton-like measure.

"There were a lot of towns waiting for this decision," Sarto said. "Maybe this has pushed it back to Congress where real decisions need to be made."