THE DAILY BLADE: Small Town America Lawyers Up For The Fight Against Illegal Immigration
What do these towns have in common: Escondido (CA), Farmers Branch (TX), Hazleton (PA) Riverside (NJ) and Valley Park (MO)?
They are among the cities and counties nationwide that have proposed or enacted local ordinances that bar landlords from renting to illegal immigrants, penalize businesses that hire them or train their police force to enforce federal immigration laws – and they all have been targeted by the ACLU, civil rights activists and business groups seeking to drive up the legal costs of defending the ordinances in court so high that town officials knuckle under.
The strategy worked in the case of Escondido, reports The Washington Post:
Escondido abandoned an ordinance that would punish landlords who rent to illegal immigrants after it discovered the legal bills could top $1 million. By the time the City Council agreed in December to settle a lawsuit challenging the ordinance, Escondido had spent $200,000, spokeswoman Joyce Masterson said.
When Farmers Branch prohibited landlords from renting apartments to illegal immigrants last fall, the town was slapped with four separate lawsuits challenging the ordinance. As of March, $262,000 has been spent on legal fees and court costs – mostly taxpayer money.
No taxpayer money is being spent to defend Hazleton’s ordinance banning landlords from renting to illegal immigrants, as the town has received $266,000 from thousands of donors around the country. Mayor Lou Barletta tells the WaPo that if Hazleton loses in court, the town could be ordered to pay the plaintiffs’ court costs, which could total as much as $2 million.
So far, Farmers Branch and Hazleton are not backing down. Tim O'Hare, the Farmers Branch councilman who spearheaded the ordinance, says the town’s insurance policy should cover the costs of two of the lawsuits: "Any thought that they can spend us into giving up or quitting is wrong," he tells the WaPo. For his part, Barletta says: "I'm sure the ACLU, part of their goal would be to run the city out of money in hopes that we would stop fighting, but I will raise whatever I have to."
Editorial Note: These towns need all the help they can get to fight their well-funded opponents in court. After complaints from the National Institute for Latino Policy, CNN removed a link on Lou Dobbs’ Web site to Small Town Defenders, which Hazleton has set up to collect private donations. The Stiletto doesn’t answer to CNN, so she is providing the link here - as well as a link to another group raising money to help small towns defend themselves in court, Mountain States Legal Foundation.
G-d Save (Us From) The Queen
Paul Jacob, Senior Advisor at The Sam Adams Alliance, exactly describes The Stiletto’s feelings about the Queen of England’s vacay in the U.S. – bored indifference coupled with astonishment that the Brits haven’t overthrown her and her parasitic clan by now:
... all I can think is, "Didn’t we kick her ilk out of our country a long time ago?"
By cannon and musket round, no less.
Why have her back? She hasn’t come to apologize. There’s no talk of her renouncing the crown.
Instead, she’s here to wave and wear silly hats … and pretend she’s better than other people. Because of her bloodline.
But, some will say, doesn’t she seem so sweet, waving and shaking hands and cutting ribbons and such?
All that’s nice and good gets overshadowed by one relevant fact: the House of Windsor is built on the belief that her bloodline is of royal stock. And that yours is not. That’s why she’s the queen. Maybe she doesn’t really believe it; maybe she’s just taking advantage, just playing along at public ceremonies. But there it is.
Jacobs also includes this FYI: "One doesn’t have to curtsy or bow before the queen any longer. Robert Lacey, the queen’s biographer, suggests that ‘Americans shouldn’t feel unduly flummoxed by this … You’re not going to end up in the Tower of London.’"
With all due respect to Lacey, The Stiletto would like to point out that the reason Americans do not – should not - curtsey or bow in front of Queen Elizabeth is because she is neither sovereign over, nor superior to, any of us: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …"
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May 13, 2007
The Stiletto wrote:
With the Iraq War having turned into a long, hard slog, Iran believed well on the way to acquiring nukes and wide-open primaries in both parties, 2008 is Rudy Giuliani’s one and only shot at the presidency. Ever. Rudy’s natural constituency comprises conservative Dems, RINOs and some libertarians. Only those conservatives who believe the War on Terror is the Number One issue are willing to even consider voting for Rudy in the primaries – at a New York Young Republican Club meeting The Stiletto attended last week in Manhattan, guest speaker Star Parker, for one, made it very clear ...
Really good point. That is the essential evil of the feudal system; the idea that she is superior to anyone else because of her special DNA.
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