Letter to
Payson, Arizona
Mr. Bob
Edwards, Mayor
Town of Payson
September 3,
2007
Subject: The
constitutionality of an affidavit attesting employees are U.S.
citizens
Dear Mayor
Edwards:
The Town of
Payson believes it is being very clever in addressing the employment
of undocumented in an in-direct way.
The Town
requires all Town employers to sign an affidavit attesting all their
employees are U.S. citizens.
The Town leaders
even gloat at this deceptive cleverness but it is a sham that will
not go without a lawsuit that will request the court to provide
damages. We support the undocumented and Hispanic businesses being
damaged by the Town of Payson.
Requiring
businesses to sign an affidavit stating they do not have an
undocumented in their employ is unconstitutional.
We reject
Paysons interpretation of the express pre-emption provision of the
United States Constitution. Under Paysons interpretation of the
provision, a state or local municipality properly can impose any
rule they choose on employers with regard to hiring illegal aliens
as long as the sanction imposed is to force the employer out of
business by suspending its business permitwhat is called the
ultimate sanction. This interpretation is at odds with the plain
language of the express pre-emption provision, which is concerned
with state and local municipalities creating civil and criminal
sanctions against employers.
In Yick Wo v.
Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 373-374 (1885), an Arizona statute blatantly
discriminated against foreigners in their choice of employment and
once again the Supreme Court stood firm. The law called for 80
percent of all workers in any company, corporation, or business to
be either qualified electors or native born citizens. As a result of
this act, Mike Raich, a citizen of Austria employed as a cook in a
Bisbee restaurant, lost his job because 70 percent of the employees
there were foreigners. He sued his employer, William Truax, for
reinstatement and the case went up to the Supreme Court. Justice
Charles Evans Hughes, for the majority, declared a state might "deny
its lawful inhabitants, because of their race or nationality, the
ordinary means of earning a livelihood."
The Justice
then pointed out: The
authority to control immigration-to admit or exclude aliens-is
vested solely in the federal government. The assertion of an
authority to deny to aliens the opportunity of earning a livelihood
when lawfully admitted to the state would be tantamount to the
assertion of the right to deny them entrance and abode, for in
ordinary cases they cannot live where they cannot work. And if such
a policy were permissible, the practical result would be that those
lawfully admitted to the county under the authority of the acts of
Congress, instead of enjoying in a substantial sense and in their
full scope the privileges conferred by the admission, would be
segregated in such of the states as chose to offer hospitality.
It is clear your
requirement of all Town employers signing an affidavit attesting all
their employees are U.S. citizens is unconstitutional.
It has been
perceived Town of Payson leaders gloat at this deceptive cleverness
but it is a sham that will not go without a lawsuit that will
request the court to provide damages.
Hispanic News
supports the Payson undocumented and Hispanic businesses who are
being damaged by the Town of Payson.
Hispanic News
therefore implores the Town of Payson to rescind the affidavit
requirement and if not rescinded in a reasonable period of time,
Hispanic News will obtain legal counsel for the undocumented
residents of Payson and Payson businesses to sue the Town of Payson
and ask for damages that will be a burden on the Town of Payson
taxpayers.
Jon
Garrido
The Jon Garrido
Network
Response from Mayor Edwards of Payson, Arizona,
September 4, 2007
Bob Edwards
Response to Mayor Edwards
of Payson, Arizona,
September 4, 2007
Bob,
Some laws passed by cities and towns are unconstitutional. Your
Payson law is one of these.
I advise you visit the following article. The Town of Hazleton
thought as you do but ran into a block block by the name of Judge
James M. Munley of the Central Pennsylvania Federal District.
You may rationalize your thinking on how you deal with the
undocumented but in the end, you will fail and Town of Payson
taxpayers will pay the damages. You can be assured we will at
the right time, provide support to those who have standing in
Payson who will file a lawsuit to compensate them for damages
they incurred by the Town of Payson Action.
Racism Killed
Immigration Reform
http://hispanic.cc/racism_killed_immigration_reform.htm
PHOENIX (By Jon Garrido,
The Jon
Garrido Network) July 31, 2007 A federal judge dealt a
decisive blow against a dangerous trend of freelance immigration
policies by local governments. Judge James M. Munley of the
Central Pennsylvania District, struck down ordinances in the
town of Hazleton that sought to harshly punish undocumented
migrants for trying to live and work there, and employers and
landlords for providing them with homes and jobs.
The ruling was a well-earned embarrassment for Mayor Louis J.
Barletta and his proclaimed goal of making Hazleton ''one of the
toughest places in the United States for migrants. In doing so,
Judge Munley laid down basic truths.
Basic truths that every American should remember:
First, immigration is a federal responsibility. State and local
governments have no right to usurp or upend a vast, ''carefully
drawn federal statutory scheme that governs who enters the
country and the conditions under which immigrants stay, study,
work and naturalize. Congress may be botching the job, but has
not delegated it.
