LawyersUSA

A group opposed to illegal immigration sued a New Jersey property management company, seeking to set a precedent by using anti-racketeering laws to crack down on landlords who rent to illegal aliens.

The RICO suit alleges the company has so many undocumented tenants in its buildings that it constitutes unlawful harboring and should be considered by the courts as a criminal enterprise that encourages illegal immigration.

The suit against Connolly Properties of Plainfield, N.J., was brought by the Immigration Reform Law Institute on behalf of a former Connolly employee and two tenants who are U.S. citizens.

Using anti-racketeering laws to prosecute landlords is a legal strategy that immigration experts say they expect to be tried in other parts of the nation.

"I think it's a new tactic because some of the other things haven't worked," said Donald W. Benson, a lawyer with the labor law firm Littler Mendelson, who has been tracking the use of RICO laws in immigration cases. "Congress couldn't reach a consensus to reform the immigration laws, states are trying to fill in the gaps and they're having varied success, and local groups are trying to work through local ordinances, so it's just one part of a much bigger picture of immigration struggles in the U.S."

Benson said that most of the attempts to use RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) in this way have been dismissed by judges in the preliminary stages, but that they were slowly gaining some traction, with one case reaching the settlement stage.

Connolly Properties has at least 45 rental complexes in northern New Jersey and Allentown, Pa, according to plaintiffs' attorney Mike Hethmon.

Hethmon said his group decided to take on the case as part of its strategy of "attrition through enforcement," or urging illegal immigrants to leave the country by making it more difficult for them to find employment and housing in the U.S.

"We have felt for a long time that the racketeering statute would be useful in dealing with situations where businesses and commercial enterprises were heavily involved with illegal immigration," Hethmon said. "We've also felt that individual citizens, communities, neighborhoods and law-abiding small businesses have always needed tools with which they can defend themselves against the harmful effects of illegal immigration."

Ron Simoncini, a Connolly spokesman, said company officials were bewildered as to why they had been targeted in an anti-racketeering lawsuit. He said he could not comment further before filing a response to the lawsuit.