HAZLETON, Pa., Nov. 19, 2006
Welcome To Hazleton
One Mayor's Controversial Plan To Deal With Illegal Immigration
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Kroft On Pa. Mayor's Action
"60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft talks to Mike Wuebben about the action Hazleton, Pa.'s Mayor Lou Barletta took on illegal immigration in his town.
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freeSpeech: Lou Barletta
Hazleton, Pa., Mayor Lou Barletta got tired of waiting for the federal government to act on illegal immigration, so, as he says in tonight's freeSpeech, he took his own action.
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Hazelton's Immigration Battle
Steve Kroft reports on one Pennsylvania mayor's controversial plan to deal with illegal immigration.
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Mayor Lou Barletta (CBS)
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Immigration And Naturalization
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Among them is one woman who 60 Minutes will call "Alicia." She came to Hazleton from Mexico a dozen years ago with her daughter to serve the town’s need for cheap labor. She worked in small factories for $6 to $8 an hour, which with overtime allowed her to live right on the poverty line, until she packed up in September and moved to another town.
"I came to work. I don't do nothing to somebody else. I'm not criminal. I am not – not going to welfare for – how you say stamp?" Alicia tells Kroft.
"Food stamp," Kroft says.
"Food stamps," she replies.
Alicia went on to tell that she worked 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week. She also said that most people in the plant where she worked were illegal immigrants.
She says it was a good job, "much better" than in Mexico. Asked why she moved, Alicia tells Kroft, "Why? Well, because I don't feel safe. I feel now different. I feel like a people know I'm illegal."
"Do you think the ordinance changed the way people looked at you?" Kroft asks.
"Yeah," she replies.
The larger employers in Hazleton say their labor force has not been affected. But there is a reported shortage of construction workers, landscapers and agricultural workers.
Also leaving town are the Hispanic restaurants, bodegas and shops that catered to Hazleton’s Hispanic community and helped revitalize the city’s downtown area, drawing praise from Mayor Baretta. With their customers gone, many of them are closing their doors.
Isabel Rubio, who is now a U.S. citizen, and runs a gift shop in downtown says her business is off more than 50 percent. But worse than that, she believes the ordinance has changed the town, stirring up ethnic tensions, and making illegal immigrants and the entire Hispanic community scapegoats for all of Hazleton’s problems.
"You notice people treating you different or reacting differently to you?" Kroft asks Rubio.
"Oh, yeah we feel," she replies. "My customers they complain. They say they say to people what you’re waiting for when you’re gonna leave town, soon? Like they want the people to leave town."
Rubio vows to stay put and is not leaving town. "This is my home. We are here 24 years. Half of my life," she says.
"There are some people in town that think that this has much less to do with illegal immigrants than it does with the Hispanic community in general," Kroft tells Barletta.
"Well I disagree with that. I have said over and over again, legal immigrants are welcome in Hazleton. Illegal aliens are not. I'm very clear about that. I've been very supportive of the Hispanic community in the seven years that I've been the mayor here," the mayor says.
"You’ve been called a bigot. You’ve been called a political opportunist," Kroft remarks.
"I’ve been called the grand wizard of the KKK," Barletta replies. "I took an oath of office to protect and defend the people of my community. And they can call me all the names they want. But this is worth fighting for."
Produced By Janet Klein
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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See all 443 CommentsAs for the ACLU, Mind your own business not ours!! Stay out of things that you have no business interferring with!! A city should have the right to govern its territory, You didn't build the city, it dosen't belong to you, or the illegal immigrants.
Call them Criminal Aliens!
Or Illegal Aliens.
You seem to be on the side of Criminals instead of citizens of the United States of America.
they don't speak english nor Watch your show unless you put in all languages here in the USA!We do however. Hummmm?
Roxy
USA, USA,
I also find it funny that the ACLU says this issue shouldn't be handled at the local level but at the federal level; and yet issues like abortion they say should be handled at the local level. What hypocrites! I think we should deport those who work for the ACLU too!
As far as the A.C.L.U Well I thought it stood for American Civil Liberties Union. If they are illegal they should have no rights in that respect because they are not American. I am part Irish but mostly American Indian. Remember when you said Indian and it meant American Indian. Now it means some one from India. All these nationalities that put it before American, well that's just wrong. Why not say American Irish, American Japanese, American African because we are Americans first and foremost. Heck if you are born and raised here then it should just be American. Also the language thing. If we moved to another country we would have to speak their language. They would not change it for us. When someone comes to this country speak the language. I guess I will get off the soap box but will reserve the right to step back on it.
To the Mayor of Hazelton. Thank You for trying to protect us all. Our borders are way too lax.
p.s. "alien" has 2 meanings in the english language. just because someone is an alien doesn't mean they are from outter space. wow.
Dictionary definition of alien
1alien adj
1a: belonging or relating to another person, place, or thing: STRANGE
b: relating, belonging, or owing allegiance to another country or government: FOREIGN
2: differing in nature or character typically to the point of incompatibility
syn see EXTRINSIC
-- alienly adv -- alien.ness -y e n-n e s n
2alien n
1: a person of another family, race, or nation
2: a foreign-born resident who has not been naturalized and is still a subject or citizen of a foreign country; broadly :a foreign-born citizen
3: EXTRATERRESTRIAL
3alien vt
1: ALIENATE, ESTRANGE
2: to make over (as property)
I live in Houston where there is a huge illegal population. Our schools are suffering, our health care system is suffering -- the bleeding must stop!!
I have no problem with immigration, but I do have a problem with people who break the law, by coming into the US, using fake documents, and working illegally.
I also have a problem with the crime-rate increase that IS due to the illegal population. I can remember when there was a murder ever few years or so and it was a shock to the entire community. Now, you hear of a shooting, murder, drug bust, every few weeks. Granted, not all of these crimes are directly related to illegal immigration, but a large number of them are, including a man who was murdered, just 3 blocks from where I live.
When I was in High School (in the late 80's) there were no gangs, not one. Now there are dozens of gamgs, including MS-13, which National Geographic's Explorer referred to as the "world's most dangerous gang."
Like Mayor Barletta, I hate seeing my hometown being destroyed. If you want to live here, is it so bad to ask that you follow the same rules everyone else had to?
NOW IMIGRANT BECOME HEAD LINE NEWS, MAKE SOME POLITICIAN FAMOUS.
BUT DONT WE NEED THEM TO WORK?
ALSO JUST LOOKING ON SOME STATES WHO DID KICK THEM OUT, FACTURES, HOUSES, JOBS......ETC
SOME AMERICAN FAMILIES WAS HURT, DIVORCES, BANKRUPT.....ETC...ETC
OF COURSE SOME IMMIGRANT ARE CRIMINAL, BUT SHOUD WE JUDI THEM ALL THE SAME?
LOOK AHEAD WITH LEGALIZATION OF THE GOOD ONES ..........BYING PAWER OF TEN MILHION MORE ...........HOUSES,CARS,TAX COLECTION LEGALY....ETC....ETC
Remember this... the US does have laws for those crossing into this country without going through the proper border check points. That is what the problem is not a days. too many people are doing this, then using the federal services and getting welfare, health care, free education for the kids, food stamps and who knows what else... Face it. if you are an american citizen and are caught using a fake federal document, you are thrown into jail. but apparently if your illegal, you arent. kinda two sided isnt it???
and by the way before you say anything this isnt about a race of people, this is about ILLEGALLY entering the US. thus they are technically criminals for doing this.
The wimpy questions where she only had to answer yes or no was a joke. The fact that the ACLU is doing anything against americans and supporting mexican is a joke in itself
When my people break the law we go to jail. We don't get jobs, education and medical care for doing so.
If children can sneak into the country, why not terrorists?
This country is based on equal treatment for people. That would include punishing all who break our laws.
Illegal is illegal and there is no way to spin it to make it acceptable.
As for Americans not wanting the jobs illegals do, put the welfare mothers to work.
No one asks for the opinion of the average black citizen on this matter, so here it is.
WHTCH HIM BACH IN COUPLE MONTHS ON THIS ISSUE....
P.s. the sales industry is the largest one in this country, if a million undocumented workers shop in one day,,look at the return
Thank god for someone like Mayor Barletta who finally has the courage to stand up and defend the rights of the working and tax paying americans whose rights have been snubbed by our Federal Bureaucrats.
Mayor, you have my complete support and appreciation.
Mr. President,
Plese take note, we are being invaded at our borders and we are losing. Get out of Iraq and defend America. Also, we are inundated by sympathetic supporters of grossly illegal activity by groups masquarading as someone defending our rights and liberties. Please let the ACLU know that ILLEGAL aliens do not have any rights under our constitution except they have right to go back to where they came from or the right to go to prison.
JP
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