Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

On Thursday, a federal judge overturned a Dallas suburb’s anti-illegal immigration ordinance (Word doc), ruling that Farmers Branch, Tex., could not require landlords to verify tenants’ immigration status. The ordinance, passed in 2006, was similar to one passed by Hazleton, Pa. in 2006 and overturned the following year. Hazleton is still appealing that decision.

But Farmers Branch, which News 21 visited in June, has a back-up plan. Fifteen days after U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay ruled, another ordinance (Word doc) will go into effect, this one requiring prospective tenants to get a rental license from the city. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the other challengers of the first ordinance say they will fight this one too. Meanwhile, Farmers Branch may have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to their victorious opponents.

In June, Carol Dingman, a former City Council member, told News 21 reporters Channtal Fleicshfresser and Indu Nepal that the city was facing a financial disaster as a result of fighting for its immigration ordinance. “We are spending our reserve,” Dingman said, “which this year is $8 million. Last year it was $13 [million].” Dingman estimated the legal fees would be as high as $1 million.

The Farmers’ Branch ruling was one of many recent local ordinances designed to fight illegal immigration. Most have not yet been challenged, while on others judges ruled that only the federal government can regulate immigration, and that vague terms defining who is eligible to rent an apartment violate the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. There was one notable exception earlier this year, however, when a Valley Park, Mo. law requiring employers to verify employees’ immigration status was upheld in federal court. If federal judges can’t agree, the Supreme Court might ultimately have to decide whether cities and towns can regulate immigration.