Council approves final IIRA wording changes
L.A. TARONE
www.standardspeaker.com
Mar 23, 2007
Hazleton City Council formalized changes to the Illegal Immigration Act during its regular Wednesday night meeting. This time, there were two changes, as President Joe Yannuzzi amended the ordinancem making one minor change to add another minor change.
Both the amendment and the ordinance formalizing the two changes passed with no discussion.
The planned change was the elimination of the words "solely or primarily" from section 4B(2) of the law, a clause that read, "A complaint which alleges a violation solely or primarily on the basis of national origin, ethnicity, or race shall be deemed invalid and shall not be enforced."
The change Yannuzzi proposed added the word "knowingly" to a previous clause, Section 4A(1). It now reads, "It is unlawful for any business entity to knowingly recruit, hire for employment or continue to employ…an unlawful worker to perform work in whole or in part within the city."
The initial change was suggested by Kris Kobach, the lead attorney on the city’s legal team defending IIRA in federal court.
The change was made because plaintiffs in the case argued the clause as written – designed to prevent charges being filed on the basis of race – allowed charges to be filed secondarily or partially on the basis of race.
Yannuzzi said the change he proposed simply further impressed the notion that the law would be applied against people who willfully employed people in the country illegally and not on the basis of race or ethnicity.
There are no other changes in the law and, depending on the outcome of the court case, there will likely be no others.
After council finished its agenda, Yannuzzi and Evelyn Graham spoke about the trial for the first time in Council Chambers since it began.
