Group Sues City and School System

Zoning Enforcement Biased Against Hispanics, Activists Say

Manassas and its school system unfairly targeted Hispanic families while enforcing zoning codes, violating the Constitution and several federal and state laws, a group of civil rights advocates said in a lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

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The mayor, City Council, school system and School Board "engaged in a campaign to target, discriminate against, and evict the city's Hispanic residents . . . to reduce 'overcrowding,' " alleges the suit brought by the District-based Equal Rights Center and eight Hispanic people.

A top city official said yesterday that the city's actions were lawful.

At issue in the suit is a city hotline set up in 2004 to allow residents to leave anonymous complaints about crowding in their neighborhoods, said Isabelle M. Thabault, director of the Fair Housing Project of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. Lawyers with the committee are among those representing the plaintiffs.

The suit, Thabault said, also scrutinizes a city attempt in 2005 to define a family for the purpose of code enforcement and a school system decision to disclose confidential student information on about 50 students to city housing inspectors.

In a review of data on home inspections, the Equal Rights Center found that most targeted Hispanic-owned or occupied homes. The suit called the inspections "draconian, taking place at night with police officers and members of the media present and including interrogations of children, all against the backdrop of the threat of criminal prosecution."

Thabault said, "The city's own record fails to show even one white family who was subjected to these harassing tactics."

"Where people have been terrorized, you can't undo that readily, but you can try," said Rabbi Bruce E. Kahn, the center's executive director.

Separately, the U.S. Justice and Education departments are investigating whether the city and the school system violated fair-housing or other laws.

City Manager Lawrence D. Hughes said he had not seen the lawsuit. But, he said, "the investigations have been going on for two years, and we remain convinced that the actions of the city were lawful." An attorney for the city and school system, Martin R. Crim, declined to comment because he said he had not seen the suit.

The City Council set up a $1 million reserve in this year's budget "for all litigation costs for the Department of Justice or related actions," council member Andrew L. Harrover (R) said.

The lawsuit comes less than a week after a civil rights suit was filed against Prince William County for a controversial resolution to crack down on illegal immigrants. The Washington Lawyers' Committee is also representing plaintiffs in that suit.