TX town continues legal battle over alien renters
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 9/25/2008 12:15:00 PM

Officials in a suburb of Dallas hope that a federal appeals court will eventually uphold the constitutionality of an ordinance aimed at preventing illegal immigrants from renting homes in the community. The city doesn't expect a favorable ruling from a federal judge in a suit challenging the ordinance.

Earlier this month federal judge Jane Boyle issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the Farmers Branch ordinance. The statute would require would-be renters to get a license.

Information from the application would be sent to the federal government for verification of legal immigration status. Anyone who turns out to be in the country illegally would have their renter's license revoked, and any landlord who continued to rent to them would be penalized.

Tim O'Hare, mayor-pro-tem of Farmers Branch, helped craft the ordinance. He says the judge has agreed to a late October deadline for motions in the lawsuit.

"We asked for an expedited trial because it was very clear that she was not ever going to allow us to enforce this ordinance," he explains. "And in an effort to save taxpayer money and as well as be able to enforce this ordinance as soon as possible, we wanted to speed up the process and get to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals."

It is frustrating, says O'Hare, that illegal aliens seem to have more rights than American citizens. "It's quite simply astonishing how often legislators and judges stand up for people who don't even have a legal right to be in the country with far more zeal than they stand up for the actual American citizen," he states.

O'Hare says barring a miracle ruling from Judge Boyle, he hopes the appeal will go to the Fifth Circuit by late December or early January.


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