Introduction

Hazleton, Pennsylvania, epitomizes the complex relationships so many places have with growing Latino populations. ¹ Hazleton is one of the thousands of Rust Belt cities and towns that have defined the cultural heritage of American communities from the late 1800s through most of the twentieth century. The city’s fortunes ebbed with the decline of manufacturing in the American Northeast, and between 1990 and 2000 the city lost over 5 percent of its population. But over the next decade, downtown and the housing market began to experience a resurgence: this was in great part the result of Latinos (mostly Americans of Puerto Rican descent) who had migrated from Northeast cities beginning in the 1990s. Still city officials blamed many of its problems, including rising crime and a shrinking local economy, on the influx of new migrants. In 2006 they introduced the “Illegal Immigration Relief Act,” making this municipality one of the first in the country to pass a ban on renting to families and individuals who could not show proof of legal residence status. Concurrently, a second ordinance made English the official language of Hazleton. The anti-immigration legislation became a political issue in the town, pitting long-term residents, mostly non-Latino whites, against a group of people who in many senses had rescued the local merchant economy. ² In this manner, Hazleton had joined an extensive list of cities whose leaders used policy, regulations, and practices to control the influence of groups that are regarded at once as useful and threatening. Among these are laws that determine how people can use space and develop land for public and private purposes.