I am proud to part of the legal team that defeated Hazleton, Pennsylvania's "Illegal Immigration Relief Act"

I grew up in Hazleton, and I know it as a place where the people are friendly, compassionate, tolerant and fair.

The Illegal Immigration Relief Act ("IIRA") was none of those things. Had it not been stopped, the IIRA would have made a suspect of every Hazletonian who looked or sounded "foreign". It would have trampled on the constitutional rights of city residents.

Even though it was defeated, the IIRA did a lot of damage. It polarized the community, destroyed businesses that Hazleton cannot afford to lose, forced residents ("legal" and "illegal")and their families to leave the city, made the city a rallying point for white supremacists and bigots, and made the name "Hazleton" shorthand for short-sightedness and intolerance.

Even before the first ordinance passed, Hazleton residents - Latino immigrants, European immigrants, life-long residents and businesspersons - were coming together to oppose it. I am proud to be part of a legal team that helped strike this ordinance down; a team that included the American Civil Liberties Union, Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, Cozen & O'Connor, Barry Dyller and David Vaida.

The case is called Lozano v. City of Hazleton, 3:06-cv-01586-JMM. Links to some of the pleadings are below.