Immigration Laws

This was a head scratcher for me when I watched the news last night. The city of Farmers Branch near Dallas had an ordinance in place that required leasing agents and landlords to require proof of citizenship before being able to rent housing.

This city ordinance was declared UNCONSTITUTIONAL and the city of Farmers Branch is being required to pay a $470,000 settlement to apartment operators and advocacy organizations. This is on top of the million they’ve already paid and legal fees.

Now, of course, this is tax money that Farmers Branch is forking over… but that’s kind of beside the point for now.

The puzzling part to me is how this can be unconstitutional? It doesn’t seem unreasonable to me to require possible tenants to show a Social Security card or Green Card. If said tenant fails to pay the rent or vacates without notice or violates the terms of the lease in any way I would think that the apartment owners would want to have the appropriate info to report this activity to credit bureaus.

Apparently, the lawsuit wording is such that this ordinance falsely puts landlords in the position of federal law enforcement if they are required to ask for citizenship documentation. Since immigration is under federal jurisdiction, individual states, or in this case, cities, cannot make their own rules.

I decided to do a little research on Illegal Immigrant Rights and I had a hard time coming up with much except that it is indeed illegal to enter the country without going through the proper channels but once an immigrant is here, legally or illegally, they are covered by the rights granted to US citizens by the Constitution and Bill of Rights (guaranteed by the advocates of the ACLU).

I also learned that there are four states that do not require documentation of citizenship to obtain a driver’s license (Washington, Illinois, Maryland, and New Mexico). Utah has their own rule where they’ll issue illegal immigrants a driving certificate but it cannot be used as photo identification.

There are plenty of illegal immigrants here that have been here for many years, raise their children here, and work here. Some even pay taxes into the IRS using real names and real addresses. And although the IRS is federal… they do not share any citizenship information (or lack thereof) with the INS.

They’re only one letter apart in the acronym… you’d think they could share?

This is a cool website. It has pros and cons on both sides of the issue. And if you’ll note in 2006 Farmers Branch City Council posted regarding their proposed ordinance up to voters.

http://immigration.procon.org/viewanswers.asp?questionID=809

My feelings on this aren’t to discriminate against certain groups of people, but rather to promote going through legal means to get here. I definitely think that if you want to come here you should do it legally. I think that if you come illegally you shouldn’t be allowed any of the freedoms that legal citizens have. If you want to open credit, lease or buy a home, buy a car, or open a bank account you should have to prove citizenship. If illegal immigrants can just as easily do all the things their legal comrades do, then there’s no incentive to come over legally.

Now in Texas, there’s always the assumption that when you speak of illegal aliens you’re speaking of citizens of Mexico. That’s not necessarily what I mean. I’m talking about illegal immigrants from anywhere… like the ones from countries that hate us and breed suicide attackers.