Texas City Changes Immigrant Tenant Law

By ANABELLE GARAY

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas – The City Council of this Dallas suburb agreed Monday night to revise an ordinance requiring apartment landlords to check the immigration status of their tenants.

The revision exempts minors and people 62 and older from having to prove their immigration status or citizenship. Also, families made up of citizens and undocumented members would be allowed to renew apartment leases if they meet three conditions: They are already tenants, the head of household or spouse is living legally in the U.S. and the family includes only the spouse, their minor children or parents.

The revised rule was approved unanimously after the council heard from dozens of speakers. It will go to voters May 12 because opponents of the original ordinance submitted a petition forcing a vote.

The original proposal, which outraged activists who called it anti-immigrant posturing, was unanimously approved in November. Since then, Farmers Branch has been sued by civil rights groups, residents, property owners and business people challenging the rental ordinance.

A judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the original ordinance a day before it was to go into effect earlier this month.

Supporters of the rental ordinance say the changes try to address the lawsuits the city faces and incorporate rules from federal housing laws at the local level.

“I think it was brilliantly simple,” said Tom Bohmier of Support Farmers Branch, a group in favor of the ordinance.

Marisol Perez, a staff attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is suing the city, said the effect of the ordinance remains the same.

“We think that any ordinance that tries to regulate the area of immigration should be subject to judicial scrutiny,” Perez said before the council meeting.

Farmers Branch has changed from a small, predominantly white bedroom community since 1970 to a city of almost 28,000 people, about 37 percent of them Hispanic, according to the census.

Nationwide, more than 60 municipalities have considered, passed or rejected similar laws, but Farmers Branch was the first to match the trend in immigrant-heavy Texas. Since then, judges in California and Pennsylvania have halted similar ordinances.

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On the Net:

Farmers Branch http://farmersbranch.info

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund: http://www.maldef.org