It's unfair to make citizens enforce immigration laws

A federal judge in Texas has made it clear that regulation of immigration policies is a federal responsibility, not one for local jurisdictions, and perhaps that will help jar Congress to act on long-overdue immigration reform.

U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay ruled Wednesday that a Dallas suburb's ban on apartment rentals to illegal immigrants, an ordinance passed by city leaders and later endorsed in a vote by its residents, is unconstitutional. Only the federal government can regulate immigration, Lindsay said.

The timing was most interesting, coming as it does as the federal government pursues a wrong-headed policy of immigration enforcement that has a Lexington, Ky., father and son facing loss of two apartment complexes they own because they rented to illegal immigrants.

William Jerry Hadden, 69, and his son Jamey, are charged with 24 counts of harboring illegal aliens and 24 counts of encouraging illegal immigrants to remain in the country in a criminal case filed in U.S. District Court in Lexington.

Taken together, the two incidents again show that local attempts to usurp federal authority and equally misguided federal attempts to turn landlords into immigration enforcement officers point up the pressing need for reforms.

Immigration policy should not be formed by local ordinances or in federal court. Yet in the vacuum created by congressional inaction, ordinances have sprung up around the country, though the Texas ruling now appropriately may slow things down.

Theoretically anyway, there are mixed messages when viewing the two cases together. On one hand, the Kentucky landlords face criminal charges for, in effect, not invoking their own ban on renting to illegal immigrants. On the other, a federal judge says such bans, when made official by a local jurisdiction, are not legal.

The federal government contends that the Haddens knew 60 tenants were in the country illegally yet rented to them anyway. Others hold a different view of the harboring charges: It's not illegal to rent to illegal immigrants, and local laws that have been enacted to make it so have been challenged in court and in the Texas case have been deemed unconstitutional.

Enough of this mishmash of immigration laws and enforcement. It's time to clean things up.

Employer sanctions have consistently been part of earlier reform efforts, and there should be penalties for those who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. But one of the problems with making employers more liable for immigration control is that they can only go so far under civil rights restraints in questioning someone, and it's common knowledge that false identification is a cottage industry.

Just because the worker can flash documents doesn't mean they're valid. The best remedy is a streamlined guest worker program that more effectively provides employers access to legal, documented workers.

But landlords? Asking them to double as immigration agents makes them responsible for too much beyond the normal requirements of landlord/tenant rental agreements. It's a ploy designed to make someone besides the government responsible for finding people after they have already illegally crossed a border.

If a landlord smells marijuana coming out of an apartment, should eviction notices be required and landlords punished if they are not? No, they should not.

We repeat our consistent editorial stand on the issue: Since comprehensive reform has a tremendous impact in this state, particularly the agricultural areas of Eastern Washington, we expect to see our state congressional delegation on point in pursuing reforms -- whether it's before or after the November election in which all House seats, including 4th District Congressman Doc Hastings', are up.

Secure borders, workable guest worker programs and sensible paths to legal residency and citizenship should be central to immigration reform. Until that happens, employers and landlords shouldn't be the first line of defense against illegal immigration just because Congress isn't doing its job.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.

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