Today marks the day when a controversial immigration ordinance in Hazelton PA will be the subject of federal court action.

Opponents of the ordinance, including the ALCU and Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund are challenging the city of Hazleton's illegal immigrant crackdown, which if found constitutional, will definitely set a precedent across the nation.

What does the Hazelton case have to do with Connecticut?

Quite simply, it's logical to assume that Danbury Republican Mayor Mark Boughton would consider adopting a similar ordinance (probably in late 2007-early 2008) since this is the same mayor who requested the Gov. Rell to allow Danbury to enter a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would deputize the state and local police offices to enforce federal immigration laws. Anti-immigrant supporters in Danbury are aggressively lobbying city hall to adopt the ordinance if Hazelton prevails in their challenge. Trust me, the anti-immigration crowd are watching this case very closely which is why everyone should keep an eye on this case.

Recently at the Stop the Raids immigration forum, John Garcia, communications director for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, who are part of the lawsuit, criticized the Hazelton ordinance. Garcia also challenged the anti-immigrant critics who shockingly didn't attend the forum opting instead to pull a phony photo-op for the press outside White Hall (although anti-immigrant xenophobe leader Elise Marciano was promised all the time she needed to challenge the facts presented by the members of the panel during the discussion portion of the forum).

We'll address the whole anti-immigrant cop-out at the forum later, for now, here's a video highlight of Garcia addressing the audience about the case.

(Note: I had to change tapes in the middle of Garcia's speech).
(Note 2: Although the video window is black, the file works so just hit play)

HI-RES Format: (click here).