Editing Valley Park, Missouri (section)

==Controversy==
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In 2006, Valley Park was featured in local, state and national news media when the city's Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance almost identical to the ordinance passed by the city council of [[Hazleton, Pennsylvania]], which penalized landlords who rented to "[[alien (law)|illegal aliens]]", businesses who employed "illegal aliens", and others who aided and abetted "illegal immigration."

Several landlords, along with the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Council, filed suit against the city. The lawsuit was supported by [[Bryan Cave]], [[Washington University School of Law]], St. Louis University Legal Clinic, the [[American Civil Liberties Union|ACLU]], MALDEF, the Hispanic Ministry of the Catholic Church and several private attorneys, who won a temporary restraining order.

Led by then-mayor Jeffrey Whitteaker, the Board of Aldermen amended the ordinance twice, and the coalition opposing the ordinances won restraining orders against both amended ordinances. The ordinances were invalidated following their repeal. A subsequent appeal by the city was dismissed as moot, in the [[Missouri Court of Appeals]], as the subject ordinances had been repealed. Thereafter, following the city's passage and publication of an ordinance prohibiting the knowing employment of unlawful aliens, a subsequent suit was brought in state court, subsequently removed by the city to federal court. After the city abandoned its efforts to punish landlords who could not prove their tenants were lawfully present and narrowed the enforcement mechanism for the remainder of the ordinance, the district court upheld the remainder of the ordinance. The plaintiffs filed an appeal on procedural issues and asked for the district court decision to be vacated. The appeal was denied and the decision of the district court was affirmed.  The city's immigration ordinances have never been enforced.

The [[Missouri General Assembly]], in the 2008 legislative session, enacted legislation, to take effect in August 2009, which included language similar to Valley Park's unlawful employment ordinance, to be enforced by the Missouri Attorney General. The state legislation had been under discussion and review for a significant time in both the Missouri Senate and House of Representatives. It remains unlawful, by Valley Park ordinance, to knowingly hire unlawful aliens within the city.