Seems to me this will allow citizens to know where to shop.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/16062126.htm

Posted on Mon, Nov. 20, 2006



Farmers Branch Hispanic leaders urge 'intelligent buying'

By ANNA M. TINSLEY
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

They call it intelligent buying.

Hispanic leaders are kicking off a campaign encouraging consumers to shop only at businesses in Farmers Branch that support immigrant rights and the Hispanic community.

This is the latest development in an ongoing controversy in the small Dallas suburb where city leaders last week approved ordinances preventing illegal immigrants from renting apartments; declaring English the city’s official language; and allowing police officers to be federally trained to target “criminal aliens.”

“We need to show them our money is important,” said Carlos Quintanilla, president of the Dallas-based Azteca Business Development Group, which is spearheading the effort. “We’re basically saying if you’re going to Farmers Branch, buy from businesses that support the Hispanic community and immigrant rights.”

His organization plans to give Farmers Branch businesses stickers to put on their windows to indicate that they support intelligent buying.

“I think we’re going to have a lot of impact,” said Quintanilla, also a member of the new Farmers Branch chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “There are a lot of companies that depend on immigrant revenues.”

Farmers Branch City Councilman Tim O’Hare, who initially suggested pursuing the measures locally, said he would never encourage people not to shop at a business whose owners have different political beliefs than he does.

“That’s not good for the city,” he said. “There is a forum to address these issues. It’s through government officials, through the voting process — not through a passive-aggressive stance against local businesses.

“This is another attempt to intimidate people and force their way on a majority that does not agree with their views.”

The issue has drawn national attention, shining a spotlight on Farmers Branch as the most recent city to adopt anti-illegal-immigration ordinances.

Hispanic leaders say they are still hammering out a legal strategy to try to prevent the Farmers Branch ordinances from going into effect. They say they don’t know when or where a lawsuit could be filed.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, area LULAC officials and the Texas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union are among those reviewing legal possibilities.

“We are determined to litigate it and challenge it in court,” Quintanilla said. “. . . It’s not over. This will be an ongoing battle.”

Legal challenges abound
Some other communities where similar attempts have been made face legal challenges as well.

In Hazleton, Pa., which has been a leader in the nationwide anti-illegal-immigrant movement, city leaders passed ordinances that do things such as fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny business permits to companies that employ illegal immigrants.

A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the city from putting the measures into place and later extended the temporary block, based on a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, for up to 120 days, saying the ordinances could create some “irreparable harm.”

In Escondido, Calif., a federal judge also put a temporary hold on similar laws this month after a lawsuit by the ACLU amid concerns such as those about fair housing. That judge indicated that the laws could cause irreparable harm and that he didn’t know whether they could survive legal scrutiny.

But some communities are even going further.

In Pahrump, Nev., about 60 miles west of Las Vegas, the town council even took issue with foreign flags.

Officials there passed a law recently making it illegal to fly a foreign nation’s flag higher than the U.S. flag — or alone. Violators of that ordinance could have to pay $50 and serve 30 hours of community service.

“All of the illegal alien protesters are waving Mexican flags and we just got tired of it,” Pahrump town board clerk Paul Willis told the Reuters wire service. “This is the United States, and the Stars and Stripes should fly supreme.”