ACLU attacks small town for enforcing the law
From NewsMax...
Two civil rights groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a suburb's new law that outlaws renting to illegal immigrants, alleging the ordinance violates federal law and forces landlords to act as immigration officers.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed the suit on behalf of Farmers Branch residents and landlords.
The law, along with a measure that made English the official language of the city, was passed in November and is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 12.
The lawsuit claims the ordinance is so poorly drafted that it excludes even legal immigrants from renting in the city just north of Dallas....
Here's the text of the law, if you want to check it out. It basically requires landlords to obtain proof of citizenship or legal residency before renting. Unfortunately the law is a bit vague on what proof is acceptable. While it refers to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Department's guidelines for acceptable documentation, ICE's website has no such guidelines. Immigrants and other legal residents that are non-citizens would already be familiar with the required proofs. However citizens, not having had the need to provide that, wouldn't, and would assume a drivers license or birth certificate would suffice. But drivers licenses may or may not prove citizenship, and the problem with birth certificates is that A. the law doesn't mention it and B. in order for it to be fully enforced the landlord would need to keep some sort of proof that they checked the birth certificate, and the only real way of doing that is by making a photocopy. Would you want just anyone having a photocopy of your birth certificate? Sounds like an invitation to identity theft to me.
I agree with the concept of what the town's doing, but the law as it's written, is too vague and is unenforceable. I'm sure they were thinking, "Hey, this is a small town and w all know each other and we just want to keep the illegal aliens from setting up camp." So they didn't think they law out as well as they should. The trouble is, there are morons like the ACLU and other anti-American groups that hate any effort to enforce immigration laws, and they'll attack any and all laws like this. They have to be written air-tight.
I'm not a lawyer, but my advice (as much as it's worth) is for them to rewrite the law, and think the actual document requirements through.
I would suggest referencing the Department of Health and Human Services Citizenship Fact Sheet. [pdf] it has a very long list of acceptable proofs of citizenship. They include a birth certificate as proof, so it should also be noted in the law that photocopying the documents is not required by the landlord.
It is interesting that the HHS can "act as immigration officers" without the ACLU getting in a tizzy. Perhaps the ability of the Federal government to defend itself from frivolous lawsuits is a factor.
From the original article...
In November, City Council members unanimously approved having property managers or owners verify the immigration or citizenship status of apartment renters. Council members also approved resolutions making English the city's official language and allowing local authorities to become part of a federal program so they can enforce immigration laws.
In another lawsuit filed this month, a Farmers Branch resident alleged that the city's mayor repeatedly violated the state's open meetings laws to deliberate the ordinances.
I can just imagine how this "open meeting" scam works. If they have an open meeting, send in people to disrupt the meeting so nothing can be done. If they then close the meeting, complain that any decision made is invalid because the meeting was closed. A nice little catch 22, eh.
Posted by Danny Carlton at December 27, 2006 8:30 AM