Lessons from Hazleton, PA

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The small town of Hazleton, Pennsylvania is often credited as the first in a wave of small locales to pass strict immigration ordinances. Hazleton rose to infamy in 2006—its name carried with it the same tensions in the region surrounding it as “Arizona” does today.

Today almost four years after the ordinance was passed and three years after a federal district court ruled against the ordinance, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has also found the ordinance unconstitutional. No surprise, former Mayor Lou Barletta is doing his best to capture press attention as he takes on his 3^rd run for Congress. The pattern of seizing on anti-immigrant and enforcement measures is not a tactic unique to Jan Brewer, John McCain, or others who have latched onto enforcement in a tough election cycle. Nate Silver, New York Times political forecaster, recently showed that 58 percent of GOP candidates are highlighting immigration issues compared to 28 percent of Democrats in races that are open for wins by either party.

The politicians moving forward these anti-immigrant policies have failed to consider the price—the immigrant vote that they will alienate. Florida’s primary showed that Latino voters in Miami Dade just stayed home when forced with a choice of voting for moderate Attorney General McCollum who shortly before the primary announced that he wanted SB 1070-like law in Florida or Scott who espoused even more rigid views on immigration.

However, perhaps more costly is the impact anti-immigrant ordinances have on whole communities. Local businesses and housing markets are dramatically affected as immigrants move away and take their consumer power with them.

I visited Hazleton in 2008 when I was studying the impact of anti-immigration laws on economies. That day Hazleton’s eroding downtown, much like the craters left by coal companies when they pulled out of Hazleton, was evident. In 2002, U.S. News and World Report painted a dire picture of Hazleton, Pennsylvania—labeling it “a town in need of a tomorrow.” But the downtown had experienced revitalization when immigrant businesses opened in the 1930’s-era downtown. Immigrants had brought Hazleton its tomorrow—a fact acknowledged by the US Chamber of Commerce in an amicus curiae they filed in the 2007 lawsuit.

On that spring day over two years ago, Hazleton greeted me with the roar of several young adults on ATVs roaring across red-orange earth cleared by industry. I saw two young boys hiding behind a tree with their rifle, and three seven-year-old girls (two white, one Latina) riding their bikes together while a few streets over a group of worn looking men enjoyed a late afternoon brew next to their cars. It’s a town where “USA” is spray painted across the side of a house and laundry blows on the line.

As I was walking through downtown, one of the town residents told me, “Ten years ago it was dead. It was just starting to change when the ordinance passed. Now it’s dead again.” I did meet some Latinos that remained in Hazleton though they were not hopeful that they would stay. A Latino restaurant employee told me that the people in town “hate the Spanish” and that there is little hope that the handful of Latino businesses will survive. A Dominican restaurant that I was told is the best in town had no customers. There was a vacated Latino travel agency and a Latino owned hair salon with a sale sign. Other empty storefronts dotted Main Street. Many houses were vacant and for sale. A rusty swing set in front a vacant home still stands out in my mind.

Does the damage stand today? Wonk Room reports:

As many as 5,000 Latinos abandoned Hazleton as shopkeepers reported that their business dropped by 20%. In 2009, Hazleton was forced to ask a federal judge to reconsider a ruling made in favor of the city’s insurance carrier that would hold the city responsible for paying $2.4 million in attorney fees incurred from the lawsuit.

When I visited the 2008 elections were approaching and there was a small grassroots campaign office that had been able to open in a foreclosed house. The word “Hope” was juxtaposed with a for sale sign. It was staffed my middle aged white folks who were buzzing with energy. They shared the history of their town and talked about how differences worked in their community. They explained to me that in 1969 there was only one black man and told me his name and that “mixed” marriages used to be between Irish-Catholics and Polish-Catholics, but that now white people and Hispanics are marrying and having babies and to most people that is okay. A local female business owner said, “The mayor just went crazy, blew up in the spotlight.”

At that office, in the middle of the country in a sleepy boarded up downtown the business owner said, “It takes a community to change things, which we had lost somehow. So we need a community, not a law. ”The business owner did not use the words “immigrant integration” but I find myself wondering what the town of Hazleton would look like today if it had invested in immigrant integration strategies that brought that community together instead of in policies that divided it and drove away business.

Today Hazleton’s law was struck down again and again it is election season. That same buzz of hope does not fill the air. Instead the tensions that rose in a handful of towns like Hazleton have reached their crescendo in Arizona. They have spread across the rest of the country with 22 states considering copy cat legislation and politicians routinely seizing upon immigration as a political tactic.

The small town of Hazleton, PA is yet another reminder that we need immigrants as part of our tomorrow. They contribute to our communities, economies, and families. It’s time again to fight for Hope and ensure that immigrant votes count.

Interested in volunteering to do voter registration and other GOTV work? Contact Toby Guevin at Toby@weareoneamerica.org.