But Barletta admitted he had no idea how many illegal immigrants live in his city of about 32,000 and that he didn’t rely on any data to conclude they are the root of its problems.
The ordinance, remodeled several times and barred from enactment pending the outcome of the court case, includes assertions that illegal immigration has contributed to overcrowding in schools and hospitals and ”destroys the overall quality of life.”
But Barletta admitted he did not contact the school district to ask about alleged overcrowding, call the hospital for statistics on the treatment of illegal immigrants or seek any data to back up any of the claims. Instead, Barletta said he assumed schools were overcrowded because classes were being held in trailers, and he read in the local newspaper that test scores had fallen.
Barletta also said he relied on conversations with hospital personnel to determine that ”uninsured people” were trying to use the emergency room, and he got phone calls from residents telling him that emergency room waiting time was up to six hours.
”So you had no data on hospital treatments or other health care?” asked Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
”No,” Barletta said.
He had no data on any other city services, from sanitation to fire calls, that could prove his contention that illegal immigrants were draining city services and the budget, Barletta said. But he claimed he didn’t need statistics to point out what was obvious to him and other longtime Hazleton residents
Outside court, Walczak said the statistics revealed that crime in Hazleton has not increased out of proportion to the rise in population, and that illegal immigrants were not committing a lot of crimes. Walczak said the city identified only 20 to 30 serious crimes that involved illegal immigrants out of more than 8,000 crimes.
COMPUTER NUMBERS
