Posted on 11/13/2006 7:10:07 AM PST by WestTexasWend
FARMERS BRANCH - This Dallas suburb could become the first city in Texas to adopt a sweeping ordinance intended to keep out illegal immigrants, a cause for concern among its large minority population.
More than 50 municipalities nationwide have considered, passed or rejected laws banning landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants, penalizing businesses that employ undocumented workers and making English the local official language.
But until now, that trend hasn't been matched in the Lone Star State.
"This is the first town in Texas that had the guts to do what's right," Susie Hart, who grew up in Farmers Branch, said during a recent demonstration outside City Hall. "The education system is tanking, health care has gone through the roof, everybody is bilingual."
Such sentiments and the proposed ordinance trouble many people in Texas, where many Latino families can trace their roots here to the era before statehood. "This is not just a Farmers Branch problem," Elizabeth Villafranca said of the proposal.
Villafranca, whose family owns a Mexican restaurant in Farmers Branch, said she worries that such laws will spread to other cities if the city council approves the proposal. The measure is expected to be submitted to the council on Monday, but there was no indication when it might be put to a vote.
Since 1970, Farmers Branch has changed from a small, predominantly white bedroom community with a declining population 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.
The local debate over illegal immigration began in August and spawned demonstrations by both sides of the issue. Council members adopted a resolution criticizing the federal government for not aggressively addressing the issue.
A councilman has given city attorneys drafts of an ordinance that would make English the city's official language and proposals to fine companies and landlords who do business with illegal immigrants.
The Farmer's Branch proposal follows a vote this year in Hazleton, Pa., 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. However, a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the Hazleton ordinance while he considers a lawsuit against the town by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups.
More than a dozen other Pennsylvania cities have taken up similar ordinances, as have several others in the South and a handful in California.
Many of the towns and counties have based their ordinances on a model provided by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which favors limits on immigration and is affiliated with the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
"They've all expressed a great deal of frustration with the failure of the federal government to respond" to illegal immigration, said Mike Hethmon, the institute's general counsel.
Critics fear the spread of anti-illegal immigration rules will lead to sanctioned discrimination and racism.
"It's basically saying those people are illegal in their very nature; it is all right to be against them because they are lawbreakers. Many people are assuming that all immigrants are lawbreakers, and that people who are different, who speak a different language, are to be shunned," said Cesar Perales, president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Just wait till a liberal" Feel your pain" judge gets a hold of this!
It's a step in the right direction at least.
I heard ont he radio driving in this morning that the Mayor's house was vandalized with pro illegal slogans spray panted on.
The mayor of this town has already had "Viva Mexico" spray painted on his house, lending further weight to the argument that these people aren't interested in THE LAW.
Look at where they come from, that should tell you where they get their respect for the law and authority.
This entire situation is becoming pandemic.
The OBL with a North American Union agenda, supported by President Bush, will do everything in its power to keep open borders and the flow of illegals, in spite of 9/11:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1686671/posts
"...a cause for concern among its large minority population..."
Should say
"...a cause for concern among its large ILLEGAL ALIEN population..."
Gosh, the MSN wouldn't twist the truth in order to galvanize and create fear among the minority populace, would it? Golly.
Pass and enforce the law. Law breaking is a no-no.
I will be there in support of O'Hare today when they vote.
"...Such sentiments and the proposed ordinance trouble many people in Texas, where many Latino families can trace their roots here to the era before statehood...."
Statistically, .01% of all mexican-ancestry folks in Texas can trace their family back that far. It's statistically insignifigant. The author attempts to lump them all together with the illegals because hey, that's what the dumb caucasians do. As if the bad white people are attempting to expel citizens whose famblies have been here for over a hundred years. Whose the idiot who wrote this article? He should be prosecuted for racial incitement, if such a crime exists, or just gross stupidity.
""It's basically saying those people are illegal in their very nature; it is all right to be against them because they are lawbreakers. Many people are assuming that all immigrants are lawbreakers, and that people who are different, who speak a different language, are to be shunned," said Cesar Perales, president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund."
Complete and utter B.S.!
Enough of the PC left wing crap. The illegal Mexicans are not immigrants. They are illegals. This PC rhetoric is getting more grandios all the time.
PC is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Immigrants make application, get their papers, and walk through the open gate. The illegals sneak across the border.
Go Farmers Branch!!
It's a good idea, but the ACLU will get it knocked down..we are no longer in control of our own nation.
But who knows?
If they dont vote, dont pay taxes and dont have drivers licenses...are they still considered residents?
Sure, the liberals have them on the welfare rolls and on the voter registrations!!!
I'd say that guy...if he doesn't have a permit to carry, better be getting one soon.
If the ACLU starts suing every municipality in America, first it will sap the resources of the ACLU, and second, it might wake up the rest of America to what the ACLU is really trying to do. If more and more communities start to enact these ordinances, we might be able to shift this debate off of an ideological one to a more practical one which would lend itself better to actual solutions. Small towns are simply being swamped by the costs of providing education and health care and controlling crime caused by illegal aliens. They deserve our support to clean up this mess.
Hopefully, Sugar Land will do this as well.
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