Immigration Chronicles

Blogging the issue with the Chronicle staff

Law against illegal immigrants too costly to enact


There’s nothing like the fear of litigation to stop a law dead in its tracks.

Officials in Riverside, N.J., voted Monday night to rescind a law the township had approved that was designed to curb illegal immigration. The reason? The contentious ordinance would cost too much in lawyer fees to defend in court, according to an Associated Press story.

Riverside leaders who approved revoking the ordinance have some precedent on their side. Similar ordinances have faced a gauntlet of legal challenges in Hazleton, Pa., and the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch.

Here’s an excerpt from the AP story on the Riverside issue:

The ordinance had never been enforced, and Monday night’s 3-1 vote by the Riverside Township Committee put an end to it.

Township officials said they couldn’t afford the legal bills that would come with defending the law in court. Riverside is already facing one lawsuit over the anti-illegal immigration ordinance, and a federal judge earlier this year found a similar ordinance in Hazleton, Pa., unconstitutional.

The township meetings when Riverside adopted the law had been fiery. In contrast, Monday’s committee meeting was sparsely attended. No one from the public spoke about the ordinance.

Riverside, a suburb of Philadelphia, had become a haven for immigrants – first Portuguese, then more recently, Brazilians.

Officials estimated that nearly half the town’s population of around 8,000 were illegal immigrants, and officials said their numbers were putting a strain on public services and already scarce parking spaces.

The law set fines of $1,000 on first-time offenders who knowingly hired or rented to illegal immigrants. The move sparked protests, counterprotests and a lawsuit.

Categories: General
Mizanur Rahman

3 Responses

  1. Mike c. says:

    Hazleton, Pa. is appealing the decision. It won’t be heard until next year though.

    Please donate and write:

  2. MEGABITE says:

    They need to crack down on the greedy apartment owners that are challenging this and aiding illegal

    aliens. Perhaps strictly enforcing occupancy restrictions, etc. They aren’t going to get away with this.

  3. Mike says:

    Its a sad day in this country that we the people make a law and the Majority approved and then the few can suppres and deny the law by forcing it in front of a liberal Judge.

    Maybe the people on the councel should just leave the law in place and take there chances with out the Lawyers and fees and hope that public opinion will see them through.

    But in the end we will probably be forced to be hailing in Queen Hillary and open borders and then looking forward to becoming a third world country. A GRIM PROSPECT IF THE CITIZENS DON’T START STANDING UP AND FORCING CHANGE IN CURRENT NEGLECT OF POLICY.