Representative Barletta adds fuel to immigration debate

He tried out for Major League Baseball but never received an offer. However, he did get elected to a seat in Congress.

Congressman Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), U.S. representative for Pennsylvania’s 11th District, discussed the issue of illegal immigration in a heated and intense debate last Friday in Houston Hall. The talk was organized by the University of Pennsylvania’s Government and Politics Association.

College freshman and co-founder of GPA Louis Capozzi said the goal of GPA, “which is balanced and bipartisan, is to address [important issues] such as immigration and illegal immigration.” He mentioned the importance of having both sides of the argument and expressed his excitement about such a “high profile speaker.”

Despite his current position, Barletta started off hating politics. “I was convinced of playing [center] field for the Yankees,” he said. After unsuccessfully trying out for the Cincinnati Reds, Barletta became convinced that baseball was not his future.

After realizing that his hometown was foundering in economic problems, Barletta decided to run for mayor of Hazleton, Pa., in 1999. He started his term by “running government like a business.”

Worried about the city’s violent crime and its alleged relationship with illegal immigration, Barletta pushed forward many initiatives such as the Illegal Immigration Relief Act, which allowed the city to deny permits to employers that hired illegal immigrants. Barletta claimed that most assassinations and crimes were linked to gangs of “illegal aliens.”

Barletta’s initiatives did not go unopposed, however. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund quickly sued the city’s government over the law. After many court actions, the United States Court of Appeals upheld the 200-page Federal District Court’s decision considering the ordinance unconstitutional.

Since becoming a U.S. representative, Barletta has devoted a lot of time to working with his most pressing issue — immigration reform.

When asked about the impact of illegal immigration at Penn, Barletta said that it was an issue that affects students and “even legal immigrants.”

He added, “It’s unfair for the people competing for work, we should work on giving legal immigrants a better life.” Barletta clarified that children of illegal immigrants should not be affected because “it is not their fault.” However, he did not address how to manage these groups of people.

After his speech, Barletta faced an intense discussion session with the audience. Some students ardently questioned why Barletta considered all illegal immigrants as “criminals” and why the conversation didn’t make note of U.S. intervention in Latin American countries.

There were also a few moments of confrontation between students who identified themselves as illegal immigrants and older members of the audience who sympathized with more stringent immigration policies.

College freshman Yessenia Moreno said that Barletta generalized undocumented immigrants as gang members and criminals based on his encounters in Hazleton. “Sequestration, deportation and ‘tightening’ border security is not a solution,” she added.

Even Barletta thought it was a heated debate. After the event, he posted a picture on Facebook with a description: “There were some lively questions after my speech on illegal immigration at UPenn’s student Government and Politics Association.”

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