A Pennsylvania town has agreed to hold off temporarily from enforcing an ordinance that fines landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, denies business permits to employers who hire them and requires that all city business be conducted only in English.

A federal district judge, James M. Munley, issued an order yesterday confirming an agreement between the town, Hazleton, and civil liberties groups that challenged the ordinance in a lawsuit filed Aug. 15. Hazleton said it would not immediately enforce the measure, passed July 13, and its opponents agreed not to seek a formal injunction for the time being.

The Hazleton law was the first in a series of initiatives across the country in which local townships, citing what they described as negligence by federal authorities, moved on their own to crack down on illegal immigrants. Mayor Louis J. Barletta said he wanted the ordinance to make Hazleton “one of the most difficult places in the United States for illegal immigrants.”

Under the ordinance, which had been set take effect on Sept. 11, landlords faced a fine of $1,000 for each day they rented to immigrants lacking papers. The measure also barred employers who hired illegal immigrants from renewing business permits or receiving city contracts for five years.