I was really pleased to hear that the Latinos in Prince William Co., VA are not taking the discriminatory July 10 law laying down. The Washington Post reports that over 1,000 Latinos came together for recent community meetings to discuss the new law, organize boycotts against anti-immigrant businesses and discuss their rights and responsibilities.

On Thursday night in Manassas, more than 1,000 Latino residents voted with raised fists and cheers to stage a one-week boycott of all non-immigrant businesses in Prince William at the end of next month. The crowd first met in a church, then grew so large it had to move to a park outside. Latinos in Woodbridge and Dumfries also voted this week to stage the boycott and other actions.

The surge of activism, which also includes voter registration and citizenship drives in other communities, follows a long period of drift and uncertainty for area Latino advocates, especially since the collapse of a major immigration reform bill in the Senate last month. Opponents of illegal immigrants, who had swamped Capitol Hill with impassioned e-mails and phone calls against the bill, felt emboldened by its defeat and have pressed ahead with local measures.

*****

“This law is built on hate and racism,” said Ricardo Juarez, 40, a construction worker from Woodbridge and coordinator of a Virginia group called Mexicans Without Borders, who was the main speaker at the three meetings. “It can affect every one of us, and we have to defeat it. . . . Will people be asked for documents in libraries or parks or schools? If a woman is pregnant and goes to the hospital, is there a risk that the staff will report her to immigration?”

The president of the Salvadoran-American Chamber of Commerce made a great comment about the burden on legalized/U.S. citizen immigrants:

“We are like a sleeping elephant,” said Elmer Arias, president of the D.C.-based Salvadoran American Chamber of Commerce. “We who are citizens have good jobs and become comfortable. We forget that we have benefited from the community and that we have the obligation to help our people.”

A year after the city council of Hazelton, PA enacted legislation to attempt to “control” illegal immigration in their town, a federal judge today struck down the unconstitutional ordinance. Hopefully other towns will take note and stop enacting similar measures, at the very least because it’s not worth the costly litigation, based on today’s ruling. The Mayor of Hazelton vows to appeal the decision.

Federal District Judge James Munley said the town of Hazleton in northeastern Pennsylvania had acted unconstitutionally when it passed its Illegal Immigration Relief Act Ordinance under which businesses would be penalized for hiring illegal aliens and landlords would be fined for renting rooms to them.

The ordinance, first passed by the Hazleton City Council in July 2006, also established English as the town’s official language.

Backers of the law, led by Mayor Louis J. Barletta, argued that illegal immigration, largely from Mexico and Central America, was overburdening local schools, hospitals and social services in this town of about 30,000. They also argued that an influx of undocumented workers was also driving up crime.

“Federal law prohibits Hazleton from enforcing any of the provisions in its ordinances,” Judge Munley wrote in an eagerly awaited 206-page opinion. “Thus, we will issue a permanent injunction enjoining their enforcement.”

“This decision should be a blaring red stoplight for local officials thinking of copying Hazleton’s misguided and unconstitutional law,” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which represented the plaintiffs.