— Starting a decade ago, a group of small U.S. cities began passing laws to block undocumented immigrants from living within their borders. The laws in most cases aimed to make it illegal for landlords to rent to undocumented immigrants and threatened fines for employers who hired them. “You should help states and localities do what they want to do voluntarily in order to help the enforcement of immigration law,” Jenks said. Barletta said he was concerned about higher crime rates, and when a 29-year-old was killed, allegedly by undocumented immigrants, he decided to act. Hazleton’s ordinance would make it illegal for businesses to hire undocumented immigrants and called for fines for landlords who rented to them.

Source: Washington Post January 27, 2017 00:24 UTC