Eighth Circuit Affirms District Court in Valley Park, MO “Illegal Immigration Relief Act” Case

Last year, a federal district upheld the City of Valley Park, Missouri’s “Illegal Immigration Relief Act,” which punishes business owners and employers who are suspected of hiring undocumented workers. The Act is the latest in a series of ordinances passed in Valley Park that some claim seek to drive immigrants — and Latinos — out of the City. After the first two of such laws were struck down by a Missouri state court in a separate lawsuit, Valley Park amended ordinances that punished employers and landlords for renting to or hiring undocumented immigrants. The city Park repealed the housing ordinance when faced with a lawsuit brought by a several landlords.  The district court decision addressed only the remaining employment ordinance.

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Beam (with Chief Judge Loken and Judge Arnold), affirmed the district court but limited its opinion to the jurisdiction and standing questions raised by the case.  According to press reports, “the current mayor of Valley Park said the decision came at a high price and the city wouldn’t even enforce the ordinance. ‘I didn’t jump up and down,’ Mayor Grant Young said. `I hope it’s a page we can turn and move on.’ . . . . The case cost the city roughly $250,000 and former Mayor Jeffery Whitteaker, who championed the ordinance, was voted out of office.”

Law Prof Kris Kobach (UMKC), who is running for Kansas Secretary of State, represented the city.

KJ