Texas Town Approves Ban On Renting to Illegal Migrants - washingtonpost.com

Texas Town Approves Ban On Renting to Illegal Migrants - washingtonpost.com: "FARMERS BRANCH, Tex., May 12 -- Voters in this Dallas suburb Saturday overwhelmingly approved a measure banning landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants, in the first public vote on any of the more than 90 measures local governments around the country have proposed to crack down on illegal immigration."

Some numbers here: Farmers Branch has 14,100 registered voters [ref]. I've read turnout reported as "over 3,000" [ref] and "just under 6,000" [ref]. Not a great turnout, but significant nonetheless as only about 1,000 folks bothered to vote in the last two municipal elections [ref]. (On December 15, 2005 when Iraqis elected their parliament, they weren't permitted to drive as a precaution against car bombs. Every Iraqi who voted walked to the polls. They braved snipers and suicide bombers. The Iraqi turnout was 70 percent [ref].)

I'm not sure where Farmers Branch is going with this because Title 8 USC is not friendly toward people who harbor or hire illegal aliens. [ref] The fact that it's a federal law means Farmers Branch doesn't have to dedicate any resources for enforcement. I'm betting a town of 27,000 [ref] or so doesn't have a whole lot of uncommitted resources.

And it's a stupid law. Why go after landlords? Why not go after people who sell illegal aliens groceries? Or shoes?

In reading the cited articles it seems that the citizens of Farmers Branch are trying to make a point. They are trying to get attention. Well they're going to get attention. Negative attention. At the very least the city's lawyers are going to spend lots of time in court defending a pointless law.