Thread: Dallas suburb discusses illegal immigrant crackdown

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Nov. 13, 2006, 4:58PM
Dallas suburb discusses illegal immigrant crackdown

By THOMAS KOROSEC
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

FARMERS BRANCH — City Council members were meeting this evening to consider a controversial proposal intended to crack down on illegal immigration, the first local measure of its kind in Texas.

This near-Dallas suburb is considering whether to make English the city's official language, enroll police officers in a federal training program that will make them de facto immigration officials and prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants.

A proposal to penalize businesses that hire illegal immigrants had been considered for the package but was dropped by council member Tim O'Hare, who has led the anti-immigration push in the town of 28,000 residents, 37 percent of them Hispanic.

Farmers Branch is following the lead of Hazleton, Pa., which earlier this year passed an ordinance to fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, deny business permits to companies that employ them and require tenants to register and pay for a rental permit. A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of the Hazleton restrictions while he considers a lawsuit against the town by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups.

O'Hare, a personal injury lawyer, contends illegal immigrants are a driving factor in the decline of the city's neighborhoods and that cities have the right to act because the federal government has failed to secure the borders.

It appeared the anti-immigration push in the city had already come to a head in September, when the matter was tabled and the council instead enacted a nonbinding resolution urging the federal government to enforce existing immigration laws.

Mayor Bob Phelps said in a recent interview that debate hurt the city economically because an agricultural products company put off plans to relocate to the city as a result of the controversy. He refused to name the company.

The flap has given Farmers Branch "an image of being intolerant, and that scares away business," Phelps said.

The city — set just 11 miles north of downtown Dallas — is home to 80 company headquarters and more than 2,600 small businesses, many of them minority owned.

thomas.korosec@chron.com

All ordinances passed unanimously. See my separate thread for details.