PENNSYLVANIA MAYOR LEADS A GROWING CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGALS

Georgie Anne Geyer reports:

Could little Hazleton, Pa., for instance, set the stage for some answers to our many illegal immigration questions? Could its young mayor, Louis J. Barletta, be one of the unsung heroes of these days? After he spoke recently with a small group of us here, my answer to both of those questions is an enthusiastic yes.

Mayor Barletta, the engaging grandson of Italian immigrants, presides over Hazleton, until recently a prosperous and uniquely civil little city of beautiful old houses and growing industrial zones. It lies 45 miles south of Scranton and has a population of 31,000.

Everything was going well until 2001, he told us, "when I noticed things were changing. The population ballooned from 23,000 to 31,000 in a very short time, and suddenly we were seeing blight in our neighborhoods. We had absentee landlords and tremendous overcrowding; we found nine Mexicans living on the floor, the refrigerator filled with roaches. I found it all so strange -- why had they come to Hazleton?"

Some politicians actually want more illegals because it increases the demand for public spending.