The Most Racist City In America: Hazleton, PA La Prensa San Diego, Editorial, Daniel Muñoz, Jul 28, 2006
On July 12th, the Hazleton, Pennsylvania City Council voted to approve an Illegal Immigration Relief Act, creating one of the strictest anti-immigrant laws in the United States. This Relief Act will impose severe penalties on landlords who rent space to illegal immigrants, suspend the licenses of businesses that employ them and declared English the city’s official language.
The law will require anyone seeking to rent in the city to apply for a residency license and submit to an investigation of citizenship status. Landlords found renting to people without licenses will be fined $1,000 a day. Business owners found hiring, renting property to or providing goods and services to illegal immigrants will lose their business permit for five years on a first offense and 10 years on a second.
The motivation behind this, according to Hazleton Mayor Norman Tarantinois, is “the loss of the quality of life.” All pretenses have been cast off and the real reasons surrounding the immigration debate are out in the open. Now, maybe we can start to talk about the real issues that are behind what is driving this divisive discussion on immigration. We ask: What is really scaring white America?
Hazleton is a non-descript mining town in Pennsylvania that has seen better days. The Hispanic population has quickly grown to represent 30 percent of the city’s population of 31,000 (up from a low of 23,000). Hispanics are pumping vitality back into this city. But the older white population feels threatened. They believe they are slowly losing their grip on power and are not able to keep up with the younger Hispanic population.
The mayor of Hazleton is using the oft-repeated polarizing imagery of a crime wave that he says is growing with the rising Hispanic population. This image has been used in San Diego since the days of then County Supervisor Susan Golding. But, much like Golding, Mayor Tarantino has no facts or figures to back up his claim. In fact, according to the Pennsylvania State Police there has been a reduction in the number of total arrests in the city. But the mayor wouldn’t let the facts get in the way of a good political slogan.
What is happening in Hazleton is a microcosm of what is happening across our country: the white population is afraid to give up power to a growing Hispanic population.
The debate on the U.S.-Mexican border, in San Diego and other impacted border regions, is not so much about drugs, crime, or terrorism. It is about how they, the white community, can keep brown faces from coming into their neighborhoods. How can they keep control and power while the Hispanic community continues to grow?
On July 27, the New Jersey town of Riverside followed the lead of Hazleton, banning the hiring and housing of undocumented immigrants. The California town of Escondido is considering taking a similar action.
Hazleton is now being viewed as an example for other towns across the country that are trying to figure out how to maintain control and power in a city where white minorities are losing the population race. If they don't represent a significant part of the population, they forfeit any claim to rule.