A federal appeals court has blocked Hazleton, Pennsylvania’s anti-immigration ordinance, which is very similar to the one in Fremont. Both ordinances were drafted and are being defended by the same attorney, Kris Kobach, who is Of Counsel to the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In a unanimous opinion written by the Chief Judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, the Court ruled that federal law preempted Hazleton’s ordinance, which would punish landlords for renting to undocumented immigrants and employers for hiring them, since regulation of immigration is “clearly within the exclusive domain of the federal government.” It is our hope that communities will continue to reject the fear-mongering and divisive rhetoric that lies behind these unconstitutional and destructive measures.
Read the AP/Omaha World-Herald article | Read the court’s opinion