http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/23/texas.law/index.html
FARMERS BRANCH, Texas (CNN) – Illegal immigrants cannot rent or own homes in Farmers Branch, Texas, under an ordinance the city’s council passed Tuesday night.
The measure requires the Dallas suburb to check a renter’s legal status with the federal government.
“The federal government will verify if the person is in the country legally,” Mayor Pro Tem Tim O’Hare said. “If not, we will notify that person as well as the landlord in writing that they do not have the right to be in the country.”
The City Council tried to crackdown on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants last year — the latest among local and state governments to focus on illegal immigration. Yet immigrant advocates sued to block that law, and the city said it has spent $770,000 in attorneys’ fees to defend it.
The case is still in court after a federal judge blocked that law, finding that city officials were trying to control immigration differently from the U.S. government, according to The Associated Press.
Attorneys for Farmers Branch have said they believe the new ordinance clears up any constitutional questions.
If landlords continue to rent to illegal immigrants, the new ordinance would let the city fine tenants and landlords $500 a day.
Jose Galvez, a contractor and 16-year resident of Farmers Branch, criticized the decision.
“Basically you have to apply for a visa before you can become a resident of this city,” Galvez said. “If there’s a glitch where the federal government made a mistake or they don’t have your proper information, you’re the one who now has to prove once again you’re here legally.
“There are other apartment complex owners who believe they’ve invested in this community before all of this and the way they’re going on about this is not healthy.”
In a referendum last year, residents in Farmers Branch approved the City Council’s stance by a 2-to-1 margin.
Escondido, California; Hazleton, Pennsylvania; Riverside, New Jersey; and Pahrump, Nevada. have passed similar laws. Most cities said they acted out of frustration with the federal government for not enforcing immigration laws more vigorously.
“The effects of the government — the feds — not enforcing the law is 100 percent local,” Escondido City Council member Marie Waldron said in November. “We have to deal with the overcrowding in our neighborhoods. We have to deal with the overcrowding of our schools and the diseases that our children are exposed to. Our police department has to fight the gangs.”
In addition, the nation’s governors are looking for compensation from the federal government for the cost of housing illegal immigrants in local jails.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California is one of a nearly dozen governors demanding that Washington pay the costs that states incur for jailing criminal illegal immigrants.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8UBU7RO0.html
Immigration agency says ,
Farmers Branch needs OK to access records
01/24/2008
This Dallas suburb could face a major hurdle in its latest effort to keep illegal immigrants from renting in the city: no access to a databse that would help determine whether applicants are in the country legally.
Farmers Branch wants U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a division of the Homeland Security Department, to check the immigration status of thousands of renters for a new ordinance passed Tuesday night that requires prospective tenants of homes or apartments to get licenses.
The ordinance says the city building inspector would verify the information of people who say they are not U.S. citizens with the federal government, who would then report back on their immigration status.
But officials with Citizenship and Immigration Services said Wednesday the city first must seek an agreement with the agency for Farmers Branch workers to access the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database.
“And whether the use is lawful and appropriate would be determined at that time,” said Maria Elena Garcia-Upson, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Farmers Branch officials have yet to contact the agency to get approval.
The SAVE database the city proposes checking is used by government agencies to look up whether the immigration status of a person entitles them to a state or federal benefit.
“The issue is if they’re going to use the federal database … one has to ascertain whether there’ll be additional heavy burden,” said Muzaffar Chishti, director of Migration Policy Institute’s Office at New York University School of Law. “And will that added burden compromise the priorities of the federal government in using that database.”
The agency is in charge of handling immigration and naturalization cases. Employers participating in a program to electronically verify if a person is eligible to work in the U.S. have access to its records. It also allows agencies that issue public benefits to access the SAVE database so they can determine if an immigrant can receive aid.
Under Farmers Branch’s latest ordinance, the city would forward information collected for the rental license to the federal government. Anyone deemed an illegal immigrant would have their rental license revoked, banning them from leasing in the city.
Farmers Branch officials first barred apartment rentals to illegal immigrants in a November 2006 ordinance. The rule was revised in January 2007 to include exemptions for minors, seniors and some mixed-immigration status families. Residents endorsed it 2 to 1 in May.
A federal judge blocked Farmers Branch from enforcing the original ordinance after finding that city officials tried to regulate immigration differently from the federal government.
U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay found Farmers Branch officials attempted to create their own classification system for determining which noncitizens could rent an apartment. The judge also wrote that the ordinance essentially deputized landlords to serve as federal immigration agents.
In response, Farmers Branch officials hired a law firm to rework the ordinance. Attorneys looked to a federal statute they say requires Citizenship and Immigration Services to respond to a state or local government’s inquiry about a person’s immigration status, said Michael Jung, an attorney with Strasburger & Price LLP.
“If CIS’ SAVE database isn’t set up to do that, they have to find a way to answer that,” Jung said.
Citizenship and Immigration Services has been trying to dig out of a deluge of immigration and citizenship applications from the summer. The application backlog is so huge, the agency fell months behind in returning receipts for checks written to cover application fees — an early step in the process.
1 Comment
January 23, 2008 at 9:59 pm
We must stop these criminals at the local level! The Federal government just can’t be watching and cracking down on all these lawbreakers, it has to be left to our local police to enforce.
By the way, whatever happened to the 287[g] program that was to be used for training our officers? I’m sure that our Village President Bill Sarto and trustee Linda Sliwiski aren’t helping to get the free program that would benefit our community.