The reason for the rancor: Mayor Phelps is opposed to a law overwhelmingly endorsed by Farmers Branch voters on May 12th that banned landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants. “I’m not for anything illegal, and I don’t know one citizen in Farmers Branch who is,” he says. “But I think we’re wasting our money and time. It’s a federal issue.”
The Phelpses have lived in Farmers Branch since 1957—Bob, a 69-year-old retired insurance agent, has served in city government for two decades. But they’ve never seen anything like the contentious debate that has ripped neighbor from neighbor in the last year, since a young city councilman argued that illegal immigrants were the cause of many problems in this aging middle-class suburb. Farmers Branch is the first city in Texas to adopt such a law. But it’s just one of many communities nationwide struggling with the way illegal immigrants are transforming the places Americans live and work. In 2006, an unsuccessful push in San Bernardino, Calif. to restrict illegal immigrants from city contracts and apartment rentals was followed by similar efforts in Hazleton, Pa. and some 100 other municipalities. In Farmers Branch, the ACLU and others this week sought temporary restraining orders to prevent Ordinance 2903 from its scheduled rollout on May 22.
Critics say such laws are unconstitutional, that they discriminate against Hispanics, and that they place an undue burden on landlords to act as federal immigration enforcement agents. What’s more, the new ordinance in Farmers Branch is likely to exact “an extraordinarily high financial and social cost to the community and its future generations,” including millions of dollars in legal fees, wrote two University of North Texas professors in a report commissioned by the opposition group Let the Voters Decide.
On the other side, proponents say the laws are a necessary response to the strain illegal immigrants put on city services. Personal injury attorney and Farmers Branch native Tim O’Hare —a relative newcomer as a city councilman—first raised the issue last August. The city had to do something about illegal immigration, he said, because his constituents were complaining about crime, overcrowding, and a strain on schools, police and hospitals. Another councilman, Ben Robinson, agreed and proposed that all foreign language materials be removed from the city library. After the city council unanimously voted in the apartment ban, opponents petitioned for the citywide vote.
Robinson had moved to Farmers Branch in 1968 back when it was a nearly all-white community on the edge of the prairie. Now, this city is nearly 40 percent Hispanic, according to the 2000 census. Over the years, “we’ve seen lots of changes. And what’s happened is we’ve sat on our duffs and we’ve been invaded by some folks that shouldn’t be here,” Robinson says. For a look at what’s gone wrong in Farmers Branch, Robinson points to the dilapidated shopping center in what could loosely be called downtown Farmers Branch. A vast, mostly vacant parking lot fronts a shuttered grocery store. The small shops nearby include a storefront Hispanic church, a dollar store, and a Guatemalan bakery. This area called the Four Corners is at the crossroads of Farmers Branch’s future. “We’re trying to revitalize this city,” says Robinson.
Though many of the initial fears about how illegal immigrants were harming Farmers Branch have turned out to be unfounded—crime is down, property values are up, and the schools are good, there’s a strong perception among many that illegal immigrants are a problem. “I don’t think nothing against the Mexican people,” says Jerry Johnson, a 70-year-old retiree. “It’s just they’ve ruined this city, nearly.” Jean Donley, 78, said she wavered back and forth but finally decided to vote for the new law restricting illegal immigrants. “They’re coming in the wrong way. If they want to come the right way then they’re welcome,” she said.
Mayor Phelps had to ask police to clear council chambers when a town hall meeting erupted into a shouting match. Local business owner Elizabeth Villafranca says a city inspector forced her husband to remove a “Vote Against Ordinance 2903” sign adorning the chest of a 25-foot inflatable eagle that they installed on the roof of their restaurant, Cuquita’s. She was nearly arrested on an accusation, spurious she says, of stealing dozens of yard signs.
On Election Day, Travis Carter and other volunteers with the opposition group Let the Voters Decide went door to door rousting voters until 15 minutes before the polls closed. Amid record turnout, 68 percent of voters approved Ordinance 2903. Now, both sides are vowing to take it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. “People are frustrated and they’re afraid,” Carter says. “They’re frustrated with the lack of activity in Washington, and now they’re resorting to their own brand of immigration reform and policy,” he said.
Villafranca started making the rounds this week at apartment complexes, urging tenants to stand their ground. “These people are so scared to death,” she says. “But this ordinance will never see the light of day.” The day after the vote, a few Hispanic immigrants held impromptu garage sales and said they planned to move. The apartments across the street—and city lines —had already hung new banners advertising “Se habla espanol” and made a point of their location—Carrollton, Tex.“I’m afraid of course, like everyone,” Abigail, a 22-year-old cook who would only give her first name, says in Spanish. She arrived from Mexico five years ago, and doesn’t have residency. “But truthfully, I don’t know yet if I’ll move.”
For those who remain, Farmers Branch seems forever changed. Vanessa Alonzo, a 24-year-old dry cleaner attendant, says many of her longtime customers have begun to treat her differently. One asked her, unprompted, whether she had a green card. (She does.) Another said he thought all the Mexicans should leave. “It didn’t used to be like this,” she says. “Now they look at you and see you’re Hispanic and they think you’re illegal.”
Mayor Phelps hopes passions will cool. Until then, “The people have voted and we’ll get on down the road. That’s all we can do. It’s in the judge’s lap now.” He won’t run again for mayor, but he won’t forsake Farmers Branch. “We don’t want to move,” Dee Phelps says. “Our church is here, our family, our friends. Also our enemies, now.”
