The Dallas Morning News reported this week, "An ordinance in a suburban St. Louis town that penalizes businesses that hire illegal immigrants has been upheld by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber ruled late Thursday that the ordinance adopted by the city of Valley Park, Mo., is not pre-empted by federal law, does not discriminate against Hispanics and does not violate due-process rights or Missouri law."
Missouri Upholds Anti Illegal Immigration Law
“The ordinance ‘is not pre-empted by federal law; to the contrary, federal law specifically permits such licensing laws as the one at issue,’ Judge Webber wrote.”
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(Amen to that.) Judicial Watch has been supportive in court of a similar law put in place by Hazleton, Pennsylvania. (That legal fight is now before a federal appeals court.) As if that wasn’t enough good news from Missouri, there was also this from the St. Louis Post Dispatch: “Although Missouri is not a national hotbed for illegal immigration, the state is taking the lead in training local law officers on how to help federal immigration authorities.
“The training includes tips for working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and information about specific programs, such as allowing local police to be deputized to enforce federal immigration law or helping identify illegal immigrants in county jails and state prisons.”
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As the federal government continues to fail miserably to secure the border, more and more local police departments are taking advantage of this training, and this never would have happened were it not for the work of Judicial Watch.
In July, 2006, Judicial Watch uncovered documents from the Department of Homeland Security related to 287(g) training, showing that local governments have the authority to help enforce immigration law. By publicizing these documents, Judicial Watch pressured local officials, who have tried to wash their hands of illegal immigration, claiming it is purely a federal problem. The efforts to enforce our nation’s immigration laws continue to gain steam at the local level. You can be sure that we’ll continue to play an active role pushing this movement along.
Tom Fitton is the President of Judicial Watch, Inc., a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, which promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law.
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