ACLU Civil Liberties Union of Delaware
Defending Individual Rights and Personal Freedom
Immigrants’ Rights
Anti-Immigrant Ordinances: Coming Soon to a Small Town Near You
As the national debate over the nature of our country’s immigration laws becomes more vitriolic during the election season, officials in small towns across the United States have begun to pass a variety of anti-immigrant ordinances that attempt to assert local control over immigration policy.
Towns in Delaware are no exception to this disturbing trend. The Town of Elsmere, which has received a dramatic influx of immigrants in recent years, has become a small battleground on which the immigration debate has been fought in Delaware.
The City of Harrington also proposed and debated an anti-immigrant housing ordinance. On October 4, 2006, our office sent a letter to Harrington Mayor Robert Price and the City Council, urging them to withdraw from consideration a proposed ordinance entitled “An Ordinance Relating to Illegal Alien Immigration.” The proposed ordinance would have prohibited the rental, leasing, or use of property to undocumented immigrants. After receiving our letter, as well as a letter from the immigrant advocacy organization Voices on the Border, the Mayor made the right decision and withdrew the proposal from further consideration. On October 31, 2006 the ACLU of Pennsylvania won a Temporary Restraining Order in a case challenging a similar anti-immigrant ordinance in the town of Hazleton, Pennsylvania. Judge Munley of the Middle District of Pennsylvania found that the threat of irreparable injury to the plaintiffs facing risk of eviction and loss of livelihood outweighed the City’s vague and unsubstantiated assertions that an increase in violent crime and higher costs for social services were the products of illegal immigration.
Similar ordinances seen in other small towns across the country include those establishing English as the town’s official language; fining business owners who employ undocumented immigrants; and prohibiting the establishment of safe, monitored day laborer centers.
A common problem with these ordinances is that they attempt to regulate immigration -- a field over which the federal government has exclusive authority under the Constitution and federal statutes. Anti-immigrant ordinances that attempt to deny access to housing and employment also violate the due process rights of landlords and tenants, as well as employers, by failing to provide any procedure for determining whether an individual is an “illegal alien,” or any process by which an individual can challenge an incorrect determination that he or she is an “illegal alien.” These ordinances do not provide landlords, tenants or employers with procedural due process protections before depriving them of fundamental rights, including the right to contract, to engage in a business, to earn a livelihood, and to continue one’s residence. Anti-immigrant housing ordinances would also make it impossible for undocumented immigrants to enroll their children – whether citizens or undocumented – in local schools because they would not be able to establish residency.
These ordinances are also likely to lead to discrimination. Puerto Ricans and naturalized citizens will likely be treated as suspected “illegal aliens” even though they are citizens of this country. In addition, those who have lost their “papers” and are waiting for their replacement will suffer as a result of people assuming they are undocumented. Faced with the prospect of heavy fines, landlords and employers may decide to avoid renting to or employing individuals who appear or sound foreign or are identifiable with major immigrant groups. This may open them, as well as the cities that pass such ordinances, to complaints of unlawful discrimination on the basis of national origin.
It is vitally important that local officials hear from you if and when such ordinances come up for debate. If you become aware that your town or city council has proposed an anti-immigrant ordinance, please contact the Staff Attorney immediately at (302) 654-5326, ext. 103.