Texas community bans renting to immigrants

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas – Voters in this Dallas suburb Saturday overwhelmingly approved a measure banning landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants, the first public vote on any of the more than 90 measures local governments around the country have proposed to crack down on illegal immigration.

With two-thirds of precincts reporting, the measure had 68 percent support, with 32 percent opposed. It requires apartment managers to verify that renters are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants before leasing to them, with some exceptions.

“It says especially to Congress that we’re tired of the out-of-control illegal immigration problem. That if Congress doesn’t do something about it, cities will,” said Tim O’Hare, a City Council member who was the ordinance’s lead proponent.

Council members approved the ordinance in November, then revised it in January to include exemptions for minors, seniors and some families with a mix of legal residents and illegal immigrants.

Farmers Branch has become the site of protests and angry confrontations, and opponents of the regulation gathered enough signatures to force the city to put the measure on the municipal election ballot.

With Saturday’s approval of the ban, opponents plan to fight it in court and will seek a restraining order to stop the city from enforcing it.

The city was already facing four lawsuits brought by civil rights groups, residents, property owners and businesses contending that the ordinance discriminates and that it places landlords in the precarious position of acting as federal immigration officers. Their attorneys say the ordinance attempts to regulate immigration, a duty that is exclusively the federal government’s.

O’Hare contends the city’s economy and quality of life will improve if illegal immigrants are kept out.