In 2006, the city of Hazelton, Pennsylvania passed the ‘Illegal Immigration Relief Act.’ This law made it a crime for landlords to rent apartments to illegal immigrants. Hazelton landlords objected to the law. The law was was declared unconstitutional in U.S. District Court. Hazelton appealed the decision and took the case to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also ruled the law was unconstitutional. The court said that the Constitution clearly states that the right to make and enforce immigration laws is reserved exclusively to the Federal government and cannot be transferred to private citizens like landlords. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case. Cities in Nebraska, New Jersey, Missouri, and Texas passed similar laws to the one in Hazelton, and at about the same time Those laws were all declared unconstitutional as well in various U.S. District Courts around the country.
Today, the city of Hazelton (population 25,000) in serious financial trouble as a result of the ‘Illegal Immigration Relief Act ‘. The city may have to raise property taxes significantly in order to pay the city’s mounting legal bills connected with this law. The city estimates that they spent $500,000 defending the law. The plaintiff’s attorneys, representing the ACLU and other organizations that fought the law, are seeking millions of dollars in legal fees. A decision on the plaintiff’s claim will be made by U.S. District Judge James Munley, who has already ruled that the city of Hazelton is culpable in the case for knowingly usurping Federal jurisdiction.