In Hazleton, Pennsylvania, many residents are ready to declare what the Republican mayor there calls the largest "crusade" in the United States against undocumented immigrants.

"Undocumented immigrants are destroying our city," said Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta. "I don't want them here, period."

Last week, Barletta introduced a measure for consideration by the Hazleton City Council that would revoke the licenses of companies that employ undocumented immigrants. Additionally, this measure that has been tentatively approved by the Council would impose $1,000 fines on landlords who rent out apartments to undocumented immigrants, as well as proclaim English as the city's official language.

Barletta says that his patience ran out after recent incidents involving undocumented immigrants. Last month, two undocumented immigrants from the Dominican Republic were charged with murder. Other incidents have perturbed residents of this former mining city, including the arrest of a 14-year-old from a family of undocumented immigrants for firing a gun at a playground.

"This is crazy," the mayor said. "People are afraid to walk the streets. There's going to be law and order back in Hazleton, and I'm going to use every tool I possibly can."

As debates on the subject of full-scale immigration reform continue in congress, several municipal officials are taking matters into their own hands, stating that they have no other choice than to mount an offensive against illegal immigration.

In San Bernardino, California, voters will decide in November whether to adopt a measure nearly identical to Hazleton’s. An Idaho county has brought a racketeering lawsuit against an agricultural company that employs undocumented immigrants. In New Hampshire, police chiefs in two towns have begun arresting illegal immigrants for trespassing.

"They're being forced to pick up the financial tab for all of this nonsense, and they are doing whatever they can to find ways to combat it at the local level," said Susan Tully, national field director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates limits on immigration.

But Flavia Jimenez, an immigration policy analyst at the human rights organization National Council of La Raza, believes that local officials do not have the funds or the authority to implement immigration reform. She predicts that the Hazleton "crusade" will lead to civil rights lawsuits.

When Barletta became mayor in 2000, only 5 percent of the city's 23,000 residents were Hispanic. Since then, the city's population has grown to 31,000 and Hispanics now make up 30 percent of the population. They were drawn to Hazleton by cheap rents and the low cost of living and jobs at nearby factories, mills and farms.

Local officials do not have exact figures on how many Hispanics are in the country illegally, but they are convinced that illegal immigrants engage in drug dealing, join gangs and commit felonies.

Barletta’s office has received calls and e-mails in support of its policies, not only from local residents but also from people all over the country.

"It's about time," said Francis X. Tucci, 57, the owner of a hair salon in the Hispanic district. "We were a nice community. You find bad everywhere; I understand that, but we're talking about here and now."