Thread: TX: Hispanics organize in Farmers Branch

Sunday, Dec 21, 2008
Posted on Sun, Dec. 21, 2008
Hispanics organize in Farmers Branch


By PATRICK McGEE

FARMERS BRANCH — A little more than two years after this city of 27,750 put itself in the national spotlight by trying to ban illegal immigrants from renting apartments, life for Hispanics has changed in Farmers Branch.
Among working-class Hispanics, there are rumors that the city "doesn’t want us." They are jittery around police, and some know families that have moved out since the city started trying to prohibit illegal immigrants from renting in 2006.

The controversy has also inspired professional Hispanics to organize, with the goal of gaining representation in a city where Latinos — who make up nearly half the population — have had virtually none.

For now, the city’s effort to battle illegal immigration on a local level is stuck in federal court. U.S. District Judge Jane Boyle has ruled that Farmers Branch hold off on implementing the rental ban at least until there’s a trial, sometime next year.

Mayor Tim O’Hare, champion of the rental ban, often points out that elections have shown voters strongly behind him, with two-thirds voting for the rental ban in a 2007 referendum and two-thirds voting to elevate him from councilman to mayor in May.

"There is a very small faction in the city who can’t seem to get over the fact that they’re in the minority on this issue. They continually bring it up, continually harp on it," he said. "Their arguments are falling on deaf ears."

'They’re afraid’

Nancy Lopez, 30, a 10-year resident of Farmers Branch, said she knows three Hispanic families who moved out and others who won’t move in.

"They don’t want to live here because there are a lot of police here, and they’re afraid they will arrest them and put them in jail and deport them, send them to Mexico," she said.

Rafael Diaz, 32, said he knows two families from El Salvador that moved out of Farmers Branch for fear of the city’s tough stance making life difficult.

Diaz said he thinks about it little, but his wife sometimes gets nervous because she is here illegally.

"There are a lot of rumors that they want to throw us out of here," Diaz said.

Apartment resident Ginger Edwards, who is Hispanic, said she sees the police pull over more Hispanics than other motorists.

But for all the complaints of racial profiling and stories of people fleeing town, numbers suggest things are not that bad.

Police said they’ve received a total of two racial profiling complaints from Hispanics in the last two years, and the number of Hispanic students in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district has increased every year for the last three years. They now make up 50 percent of the student body.

Marilu said she does not feel any fear of what the City Council is doing — or of the police. She asked they her full name not be published because she is here illegally.

She said she trusts police, and when she saw teens using drugs in a park she called 911 to report it.

"I’m not afraid of anything," she said laughing. "If they send me home, I’ll go there."

Farmers Branch resident Richard Sambrano is an advocate for Hispanics in the city, but he thinks some of the accusations of racial profiling are overblown.

"I don’t think the police are doing anything to harm anybody," Sambrano said. "When I get a call [from a Hispanic who got a ticket] I say, 'Why do you say it’s profiling when in fact you violated the law?’ They say, 'Well, they don’t do this to Anglos.’ And I say, 'Well, how do you know?’ "

Organizing

Sambrano and other professional-class Hispanics say organizing into civic groups is the answer.

He pointed out that U.S. Census figures released this month show Hispanics are the largest ethnic group in Farmers Branch. They make up 47 percent of the city’s population, but there are no Hispanics on the five-member city council or on the seven-member school board.

Sambrano said this means they have to be organized. He is a board member of the new Carrollton-Farmers Branch Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and he is working to help found a new League of United Latin American Citizens council in Farmers Branch.

He said he wants the Hispanic civic groups to work with the City Council and police.

"We are going to try to address a lot of the issues that need to be addressed and work with them, but if they don’t want that we’re going to fight it," he said.

Susan Young, a Farmers Branch resident and businesswoman who is also helping found the LULAC council, talked in broad strokes about the new organization having a positive influence in the city.

She talked about the new group working with the schools, but also said it would oppose the city’s anti-illegal-immigration stance.

"It’s not really up to the City Council to be policing immigration," she said. "That’s not our business, our business is to maintain our city."

www.star-telegram.com

Yet another example of sloppy, lazy, & biased reporting on this issue.

The only people the ordinance effects are illegal aliens so that says a lot about the people that are mentioned in which moved out or wont move in to Farmers Branch and how effective the implementation of the ordinance will be.

"We are going to try to address a lot of the issues that need to be addressed and work with them, but if they don’t want that we’re going to fight it," he said.

The LULAC Way or No Way. This is really extortion. This should read, we are going to make demands and if they don't abide, we are going to cause trouble. LULAC's supporters (from Dallas) yelled at rallies and blabbed to reporters to "let the voters decide" and the people of Farmers Branch voted for the ordiance. LULAC has been throwing a fit ever since the citizens didn't vote the way they wanted.

Dixie

"I don’t think the police are doing anything to harm anybody," Sambrano said. "When I get a call [from a Hispanic who got a ticket] I say, 'Why do you say it’s profiling when in fact you violated the law?’ They say, 'Well, they don’t do this to Anglos.’ And I say, 'Well, how do you know?’ "

He's got that right! By the same token, being an illegal alien also violates the law,so GET OUT!

The citizens need to keep yelling louder, it is their town and the fact the federal goverment won't do anything gives them the right to protect their community.