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Ky. Court: Renting To Undocumented Immigrants Not Illegal

Last Update: 7/01/2008 1:29 pm

Web produced by: Kellie Geist

A Kentucky landlord was found not guilty for harboring undocumented immigrants Friday.

William Jerry Hadden, of Lexington, faced 62 charges for renting apartments at Cross Keys and Woodridge apartments without verifying the immigration status of the future tenants.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund wrote a letter to the court last week to argue that prosecuting the landlord on harboring charges was misguided. They said that the prosecutors were using the harboring statute as a misguided weapon to try to control immigration.

The PRLDEF argued that if that theory of law is accepted, it would make many landlords reluctant to rent to any Latinos.

"The overwhelming majority of Latino immigrants in this country have the same legal rights as any other American to buy and rent property," said Cesar Perales, PRLDEF's president and general counsel in a press release.

"We have seen too many times where these attempts to dictate immigration laws have led to discrimination against all Latinos."

The case became controversial because some said prosecutors were trying to impose an obligation to verify the immigration status of every customer on small business owners and landlords. Law does not require verifying the immigration status of potential customers or tenants.

The court agreed with the PRLDEF and ruled that there had to be evidence that the defendant intended to violate the immigration laws by concealing or hiding tenants.

Kentucky Post

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