Farmers Branch To Debate Anti-Immigrant Ordinance

The northern Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch is jumping into the immigration debate. City councilman Tim O'Hare has introduced a new ordinance, which will be discussed at monday's council meeting. Mr. O'Hare seems to blame most of the city's problems on undocumented workers. He said, "The reason I got on the city council was because I saw our property values declining or increasing at a level that was below the rate of inflation. When that happens, people move out of our neighborhoods, and what I would call less desirable people move into the neighborhoods, people who don't value education, people who don't value taking care of their properties."

The ordinance introduced by O'Hare would:

1. Prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants.
2. Penalize businesses that employ undocumented workers.
3. Make english the city's official language.
4. Cease publication of any documents in spanish.
5. Eliminate subsidies for illegal immigrants in the city's youth program.

According to O'Hare, this is all that is needed to solve all of Farmers Branch's problems. Just get rid of the brown people and everything will be fine. This is nothing but naked racism. The saddest part is that someone this obviously racist actually got elected to a Metroplex city council. Fortunately, much of the council opposes this kind of behavior.

Speaking for sanity, Mayor Bob Phelps said he feared they would get sued if they passed the ordinance. He said, "We have a council member or two that want to push this, but I don't think now is the time. Until we get some clear understanding of what can be done, or what the United States is going to do, it's hard for us in Farmers Branch, being a little town of 27,000, to do anything."

Hector Flores, with the League of United Latin American Citizens, says, "I'm sure the Statue of Liberty must be crying right now, knowing some of our subjects in this great democracy of ours are conjuring up to make life more miserable for those who are here trying to eke out a living, contributing to our great country through their sweat and tears, only looking for what our forefathers were looking for when they came here."

This is a ridiculous ordinance for a city to be considering. Immigration is a federal concern, and should be left to the federal government. For each city to dive into this mess, just opens opportunities for racist and unconstitutional activities. Farmers Branch would do well to reject this ordinance as quickly as possible.