The Old Eighteen

Federal judge strikes down anti-immigrant rental rules in Farmers Branch

A federal judge has thrown out the Farmers Branch ordinance prohibiting apartment rentals to illegal immigrants and making landlords responsible for the verification of legal immigration status or citizenship:

A federal judge found Wednesday that a Dallas suburb's rule prohibiting apartment rentals to illegal immigrants was unconstitutional and could not be enforced.

In his decision, U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay concluded that only the federal government can regulate immigration. Farmers Branch didn't defer to the federal government in immigration matters; instead, the city tried to create its own classification to determine which noncitizens could rent in Farmers Branch, the judge said.

The judge found that violates the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which allows for the federal government to pre-empt local laws.

The ordinance also didn't comply with the due process clause of the 14th Amendment because it was vague, the judge ruled.

The rule also failed to provide clear guidance that immigration documents were acceptable and didn't explain what was meant by the ordinance phrase "eligible immigration status," the judge wrote.

[...] Lindsay also wrote that the city's attempts to salvage the ordinance faltered because they would have required the court to draft laws, which is outside of the court's duties.

[...] Residents endorsed the rule 2-to-1 in May 2007 during the nation's first public vote on a local government measure meant to combat illegal immigration.

But a group of apartment complex operators, residents and advocates sued Farmers Branch. They said the rule was so poorly drafted that it could allow exclusion of legal immigrants and citizens, was difficult to abide by because it didn't provide clear guidance for apartment managers and owners, and improperly tried to turn property managers into policing agents.

This ruling will undoubtedly provoke howls of outrage among right-wingers about "activist" judges overruling the will of the people, but I agree with the ruling, and as I've said before, thank god for "activist" judges.  However you may feel about illegal immigration, it's not the responsibility of apartment managers and landlords to enforce federal immigration law.

These anti-immigration measures, in my opinion, have little to do with enforcing immigration law, and much more to do with latent racism against Hispanics.  If most of our illegal immigrants were from Ireland instead of Mexico, I seriously doubt that the fine people of Farmers Branch would have nearly as much of a problem with them being allowed to rent in the city.  And I say this partly because most of the people I've seen stressing out over illegal immigration also want to make it harder for people to immigrate legally to this country, and partly because they spend so much time wringing their hands about immigration (illegal or otherwise) being a threat to our "heritage" and "culture."  I guess they've forgotten that our American "heritage" and "culture" were created by immigrants, and not just white immigrants but by people from countries all over the world.

What we need to do is to streamline the immigration process, so that more people will be motivated to immigrate legally; normalize the status of the people who are already here, instead of rounding them up into glorified concentration camps; and enforce our borders in a way that makes it easier to keep truly undesirable people out, without disrupting the lives of the people who live along the border or denigrating our historic status as a nation that opens its arms wide to people who want to come to America to create better lives for themselves and their families.  This openness is what made us a great nation, and it's because we've begun to turn our backs on this fundamental American value that our greatness as a nation has begun to slip in the last few years.

Border Patrol to check citizenship status for hurricane evacuees

After the spectacular clusterfucks known as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, emergency management officials set about to improve evacuation procedures.  Of course, being Republicans, their definition of the word "improve" diverges a bit from the commonly accepted meaning of the word, that being "to make better":

Ending speculation about the fate of the Rio Grande Valley's undocumented immigrants during a hurricane evacuation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has confirmed it will check the citizenship both of people boarding buses to leave the Valley and at inland traffic checkpoints.

Those determined to be in the country illegally will be taken to detention centers away from the hurricane's path and later processed for deportation.

"It's business as usual at the checkpoints," said Dan Doty, spokesman for CBP's Rio Grande Valley sector. "We'll still check everybody."

Needless to say, those with functioning brains are warning that this might not be such a good idea:

Locals responded with predictions of humanitarian disaster.

"We can't wait to see the helicopter photos of us sitting on roofs," said the Rev. Mike Seifert, a priest and activist based in a colonia outside Brownsville. The many area families with one or more undocumented members would just refuse to evacuate, he said.

"Imagine," Seifert said. "We're all in an uproar, everybody's in an enormous hurry, there's just a narrow window of opportunity and you get to the place with the buses and the Border Patrol's checking people. You're not going to go."

To his credit, even Governor Goodhair thinks this is a bad idea:

Krista Piferrer, a spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said Thursday the state's stand on the issue had not changed.

"The governor's office prefers that the Border Patrol not use checkpoints during times of evacuation for obvious reasons," she said. "It will slow down traffic and create problems. ... During times of emergency our priority No. 1 is safety and we continue to hold on to the same belief."

No worries, say the geniuses at the CBP; it's not like they'll be checking everyone:

Document checks are not mandatory at the checkpoints; it's up to an agent to assess travelers and determine whether to ask for papers. Doty said that even with the checks, 120,000 people could be evacuated within 80 hours.

"Our agents, they do it so often, they know what to look for," he said.

Translation: as long as you don't look too Mexican, you'll get through in no time. 

Wherever you might stand on the illegal immigration issue, it should be obvious to you that checking the citizenship status of people trying to evacuate in advance of an approaching hurricane is a colossally stupid idea on its face that suggests a lack of foresight - that is, unless, like me, you’re cynical enough to believe that this is being done with the deliberate intention of ensuring that some people (i.e. undocumented Mexicans) choose to remain behind and thus end up getting themselves killed.

But even so, and despite the rosy predictions of the CBP, this isn’t just going to affect illegal immigrants, it’s going to delay the evacuation of everyone regardless of their citizenship status.  Whoever came up with this wonderful idea, whatever their intentions, should be charged with a separate count of criminally negligent homicide for every person who dies needlessly because of this idiocy.

::

(via Texas Liberal)

Texas Border Coalition sues to halt construction of border fence

Apparently the people who live down by the border really don't want this fence being built in their backyards:

A group of Texas cities and business groups has sued the Department of Homeland Security to stop the construction of a fence along the border with Mexico.

The Texas Border Coalition, which includes the mayors of Eagle Pass, Brownsville, El Paso, Laredo and Hidalgo, filed the suit in federal court in Washington on Friday, asking a judge to block construction of 70 miles of border fences and walls in the Rio Grande Valley.

The lawsuit seeks class-action certification and accuses Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Customs and Border Patrol officials of not telling landowners they had the right to negotiate the price for the federal use of their land, concealing how they decide what constitutes a reasonable price for land seized for the fence and showing favoritism to wealthy or well-connected landowners.

Concealing information to deceive people, showing favoritism to the rich - sounds like standard operating procedure for the Bush administration to me...