JURIST - Paper Chase: Pennsylvania community delays enforcement of immigration law

[JURIST] The city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania [official website] on Friday agreed to delay for 20 days [judicial order, PDF] enforcement of a tough new local law against illegal immigration while it rewrites the ordinance in an effort to bolster it against legal challenges. The law was challenged [JURIST report; complaint; ACLU materials] last month by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU) and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) [advocacy websites], which have argued that the federal government has exclusive power to regulate immigration [CRS study], and that the city law is discriminatory under the US Constitution. The parties agreed to the 20-day enforcement delay so that the plaintiffs have time to request a second injunction.

Hazleton's Illegal Immigration Relief Act [text, PDF; mayor's letter] punishes employers, landlords, and business merchants who employ, rent to, or sell products to illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive], and makes English the official language of Hazleton. AP has more.

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