Previously I noted that there was a petition drive in Farmers Branch to force a repeal of the anti-immigrant law that was passed by its City Council in November. It appears that drive was successful.
Opponents of a city ordinance prohibiting landlords from renting to illegal immigrants have collected enough valid signatures to force the City Council to repeal the measure or put it to a city vote.
The petition drive gathered at least 908 valid signatures, more than the 721 required, city spokesman Tom Bryson said.
[…]
The petitioners needed to collect the signatures of at least 5 percent of the voters registered for the May election.
Bryson said the council will discuss the petition at its Jan. 8 meeting. The city charter requires that the council now reconsider the measure or call a special election on the issue.
Bryson said that if the issue goes to a vote, it would be placed on a May 12 ballot.
If I were in charge of the campaign to repeal this stupid law, I would be sure to emphasize that its nullification would (among other things) result in the dismissal of the lawsuits that have been filed against the city. (Not all of them, perhaps – one such suit alleges that the Council violated state open meeting laws.) Needless to say, that would save the city a ton of money in legal fees. There are certainly better reasons to vote for its repeal, but that’s one that I think most people can relate to. I’m guessing that Council will not reconsider its action, so mark your calendar for May 12 when this goes to a vote.
This is good news, though I doubt the good citizens of FB will see fit to save themselves the trouble and expense of losing the forthcoming lawsuits.
Thom Hartmann puts this issue succinctly enough that even a Republican could understand it: the U.S. doesn’t have an illegal immigration problem, it has an illegal employment problem, and the only way we’ll solve it is to start throwing employers in jail for knowingly hiring and exploiting illegal workers.
But true to form, the good conservatives in the FB city council took exactly the reverse approach, making it a violation to board, but not to hire, someone who can’t prove (s)he has a right to be in the U.S. – a move guaranteed to provoke discrimination against Hispanics – even if they’re U.S. citizens!