Farmers Branch is now going after renters as well as illegal immigrants

Farmers Branch has escalated its odious campaign to ban illegal immigrants:

A Dallas suburb mired in a lawsuit over its attempts to bar illegal immigrants from renting in the city asked a federal judge on Monday to consider its newly-revamped ordinance instead of the previous one.

The request would consolidate the ordinances and allow the judge to deliberate the validity of both, said Michael Jung, attorney representing Farmers Branch.

The City Council approved a rule last week banning home and apartment rentals to illegal immigrants. The new rule would require potential tenants to get rental licenses from the city, which would ask the federal government for the applicant’s legal status.

Farmers Branch has already been fighting a lawsuit filed by apartment complex owners and civil rights groups over an earlier rule barring landlords from renting apartments to most illegal immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay blocked Farmers Branch from enforcing its original ordinance. The judge found Farmers Branch city officials attempted to create their own classification system for determining which noncitizens could rent an apartment. [AC: court opinion here (pdf).]  The judge also wrote that the ordinance essentially deputized landlords to serve as federal immigration agents.

Thus, to keep the illegal immigrants out, Farmers Branch wants to make all renters get permission before signing a lease — and the rule would apply to both single family homes as well as apartment complexes.

Forget about the patent xenophobia.  Can you imagine the impact this precedent would have on the rental markets in this state?  Lots of jurisdictions are just itching to restrict rentals.  I can’t imagine a better strategy than requiring renters to come groveling to the city for permission to live there.  And if a city can condition a rental “license” on legal residency, why not on other things? 

The mere prospect of having to apply for a license will deter many if not most renters.  Developers aren’t stupid; they will recognize that new apartment complexes will be hard to fill.  They won’t build them.  A city might as well zone out all multi-family.  That would frankly be less insulting to renters.

I have a hard time believing that the local government code gives cities this kind of authority. I can’t tell whether the federal judge will consider state-law challenges to ordinance; that’s usually discretionary. (The plaintiffs may not have even raised any state-law challenges.)  But I hope some judge somewhere eventually buries this ordinance.