The little saga of the Emporor of Farmers Branch

Farmers Branch is a small suburb of Dallas that has recently made national news for passing ordinances that make landlords the first line of defense in the struggle with illegal immigration. Basically, if you are a landlord in Farmers Branch, you have to verify the nationality of the applicant. You are also responsible if the documentation turns out to be a forgery. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a document expert and I wouldn’t want to be responsible for finding forgeries.

Because of this, the city got sued by several entities and tax dollars are being devoted to defending those lawsuits.

I don’t think anyone supports illegal immigration and the issues of illegal immigration deserve a much longer post. My concern has always been that it is difficult to distinguish who is a US Citizen and who is not. There will be a chilling effect on any landlord renting to someone with tan skin. Equal Housing and the Code of Ethics require REALTORS to serve everyone equally. As a REALTOR I don’t want to be checking my client’s papers before showing them a property.

The Mayor of Farmers Branch, Tim O’Hare spearheaded this effort when he was on city council and used it as a wedge issue to get elected Mayor.

Now he’s gone one step farther. A few days after learning that LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, was mentoring students in an after school program, Mayor O’Hare wants to pull out of the regional school district and form a new school district just for Farmers Branch. He said in today’s paper that it’s not because of the Hispanic group volunteering in the schools, but it just seems odd that only days after finding out about this, he calls an Executive Session meeting to launch the idea of forming a new, exclusively Farmers Branch school district.

I’ll probably get flaming responses on this, but I think America is strongest when it draws on the strengths of all our citizens. I hope the citizens of Farmers Branch will reject this proposal and will consider where their tax dollars are being spent in these hard economic times.