WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday struck down a Pennsylvania city's ordinance that sought to punish landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and employers who hire them, ruling that immigration law is the province of the federal government alone.
The measure in Hazleton had become a symbol and an inspiration for a growing movement among state and city officials to enact local laws to combat illegal immigration. Supporters of this effort charge that Washington has failed to control the U.S. borders or deal with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants who live in the country.
Activists on both sides of the issue said that Thursday's decision -- the first after a trial in federal court -- dealt a major setback, but not a final defeat, to these local initiatives.
"Immigration is a national issue," U.S. District Judge James M. Munley said in knocking down the ordinance adopted last year in Hazleton, a city of about 30,000 that is 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Led by the city's outspoken mayor, Louis J. Barletta, the City Council voted to fine landlords who rented to illegal immigrants and to revoke business permits of employers who hired them.
But Munley blocked the measures from taking effect and, in Thursday's 206-page decision, concluded that local officials lacked authority to go beyond federal law and impose penalties on businesses for hiring illegal immigrants.
"Allowing states or local governments to legislate with regard to the employment of unauthorized aliens would interfere with congressional objectives" to control immigration policy, Munley said.
The judge also noted that people in the country illegally had the legal right to challenge discriminatory ordinances in court.
"We cannot say clearly enough that persons who enter this country without legal authorization are not stripped immediately of all their rights because of this single illegal act," Munley wrote.
He noted that the Constitution says no person may be deprived of "due process of law." The Supreme Court has said this protection extends to those who have entered the country illegally, he added.
Civil liberties lawyers who sued to void the Hazleton ordinance called the ruling a sweeping victory and said it dealt a "body blow" to other local efforts to regulate illegal immigrants. Hazleton has inspired similar measures nationally.
