Cooking up a storm in Farmers Branch

Last week, after months of waiting, U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay in Dallas told Farmers Branch officials that Ordinance 2903, which sought to keep illegal immigrants from renting apartments in the city, was unconstitutional.

As expected, the judge pushed back the city’s efforts to enforce federal immigration laws locally, in this case by shifting the burden to apartment owners and managers to ensure that tenants are legal residents.

Although I’m no constitutional law expert, I’ve argued repeatedly that immigration enforcement — regardless of your frustration with the lack of it and all of the problems you believe come from it — is a federal issue. Seeking to mandate that enforcement locally via ordinances is not the way to solve illegal immigration”*

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