Thread: Farmers Branch Rental Proposal Continues

Jan 22, 2007 9:22 pm US/Central

Farmers Branch Revises Rental Law Proposal

Jay Gormley
Reporting

(CBS 11 News) FARMERS BRANCH City Council members in Farmer's Branch agreed Monday night to revise a controversial ordinance requiring apartment landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants.

The reworked ordinance would exempt minors and people 62 and over from having to prove their immigration status or citizenship. Also, families made up of citizens and undocumented members would be allowed to renew an apartment lease if they meet three conditions: are already tenants, the head of household or spouse is living legally in the U.S. and the family includes only the spouse, their minor children or parents.

The revised rule, approved unanimously after the council heard from dozens of speakers and each other, will go to voters May 12.

State Rep. Rafael Anchia urged council members to work together to ask the federal government for immigration reform.

"I find it difficult for you to legislate from the City Council what is a federal mandate," Anchia, D-Dallas, told the council.

About 100 people attended the meeting.

The original proposal -- which has outraged activists who call it anti-immigrant posturing -- was unanimously approved in November. It required property managers or owners to verify the immigration or citizenship status of each apartment occupant before they could enter into a lease.

Council members also approved resolutions making English the city's official language and allowing local authorities to become part of a federal program so they can enforce immigration laws.

Since then, Farmers Branch has been sued by civil rights groups, residents, property owners and business people challenging the rental ordinance. Opponents of the ordinance also submitted a petition that forced the vote on the issue, a move allowed under the city's charter.

A judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the ordinance a day before it was to go into effect earlier this month.

The City Council held a special meeting last week in which members directed the city attorney to prepare a revised rental ordinance.

Despite the changes, the effect of the ordinance remains the same, said Marisol Perez, staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is suing the city.

"We think that any ordinance that tries to regulate the area of immigration should be subject to judicial scrutiny," Perez said before the council meeting.

Supporters of the rental ordinance say the changes try to address the lawsuits the city faces and incorporate rules from federal housing laws at the local level.

"I think it was brilliantly simple..." said Tom Bohmier, of Support Farmers Branch. "And it gives some leeway to mixed families. I don't know what more people could want especially if they're opposed to it."

Around the country, more than 60 cities or counties have considered, passed or rejected similar laws, but Farmers Branch was the first in Texas.

Since then, judges in California and Pennsylvania have halted similar ordinances from taking effect there.

Farmers Branch has changed from a small, predominantly white bedroom community with a declining population in the 1970s to a city of almost 28,000 people, about 37 percent of them Hispanic, according to the census. It also is home to more than 80 corporate headquarters and more than 2,600 small and mid-size firms, many of them minority-owned.

(CBS 11 News)

My fear here is that Farmers Branch is slowly being ground down. They keep modifying and conceding based on what the illegals and their lawyers will accept.

I'd like to see a few big cities step up. These small towns fight it out as much as they can, but it is financially draining. It's absolutely pathetic that the federal government ignores this. I still would like Senators Cornyn and Hutchison, and Rep Marchant to make a statement or to take a side specifically involving Farmers Branch, but I know that won't happen. I could say Cornyn and Hutchison have basically taken their sides on the amnesty side. Marchant, we'll see. This is his district.