Immigration Law

Did Farmers Branch Violate Court Order By Asking About Tenants' Legal Residency?

By Robert Kraft

The Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch, entangled in litigation about the city's attempts to regulate illegal immigration at the municipal level, may have made an inadvertent error by asking for the legal status of tenants while enjoined from doing so by a federal court order.

Here are excerpts from a story today in the Dallas Morning News:

Farmers Branch acknowledged Monday that the city asked 11 apartment complexes to check whether prospective tenants were in the country legally, even though a federal judge has blocked enforcement of the city's ban on rentals to illegal immigrants.

City Manager Gary Greer called the situation, involving an annual application for a rental license, inadvertent and an "unfortunate error."

Management of seven of the 11 complexes signed the form, though two crossed out the improper language, Mr. Greer said.

It wasn't known whether anyone had been turned away from an apartment, though Mr. Greer said: "To my knowledge, there is not anyone that is carrying this out. We will be checking into that, to be sure they understand that they don't have to. ...

"I'm doing everything I can do right now to make sure it never happens again."

The city's voters overwhelmingly approved a measure last May to require apartments to obtain proof of legal status before renting to anyone.

But lawsuits challenged the constitutionality of the measure, and U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement until the legal issues can be resolved. The case hasn't yet reached trial.

Apartment complexes' licenses to rent units expire at the end of each calendar year, and they must submit a new application. The city sent a proper license application to every complex in November. It asked applicants to acknowledge that they had received a copy of the apartment ordinances and would abide by them.

But early this month, when resending applications to complexes that still hadn't renewed their licenses, the city inadvertently used the wrong form, Mr. Greer said. That version specifically mentioned a provision that requires landlords to verify that prospective renters are in the country legally.

Mr. Greer said the application form had been drafted in fall 2006, after the council first approved an ordinance banning apartment rentals to illegal immigrants. At the time, there were no lawsuits and no injunctions in place.

Full post as published by Immigration Law Answers Blog on March 25, 2008 (boomark / email).