A Word About Illegal Immigration 

I am strongly opposed to illegal immigration.  Always have been.  Always will be.  There is nothing about the word illegal that I don’t understand. I believe that the US must secure it borders, and that we must know who is in our country.  No one can be in our country illegally.  No argument.  No debate.

I believe that illegal immigrants are costing our county, our State and our nation millions of dollars a year.  I share most Americans’ enormous frustration with the Federal government’s lack of action.

The citizens of Farmers Branch overwhelming voted for the illegal immigration ordinance (2903), even though I believe they were misled.  However, if it is enacted as a law, as Mayor, I will enforce it to my full authority.

I opposed 2903 for four reasons:

1. No cost/benefit analysis was ever done.  How much do undocumented immigrants cost Farmers Branch?  How much will we save if we kick them all out? How many undocumented immigrants are there in Farmers Branch?  Almost a year later these questions are still unanswered.

2. I thought there were other, more conventional ways to deal with the real issues.  There are recognized constitutional actions that Farmers Branch can take that will impact undocumented immigrants.  First, we can strictly enforce all of our local laws and city codes.

3. There are other, more effective ways to get undocumented immigrants out of our city AND out of our country. I totally support Chief Fuller’s initiatives to fully implement programs like 24/7 CAP that Irving has used to deport 2,100 undocumented immigrants since ’06 and 287G.  These programs not only get the undocumented immigrants out of Farmers Branch, they get them out of the country and keeps us out of lawsuits.

4. There was never a cost justification presented and many misrepresentations were made by current Council members and my opponent. I believe that the illegal immigration issue is a red herring, a publicity stunt to grab headlines and advance the political and professional career of my opponent.

To date, almost a year later, not a single illegal alien has left Farmers Branch because of the rental ban ordinance.  All the Farmers Branch citizens have is broken promises from my opponent. He said that 2903 would be found constitutional in the courts. It has not and likely will not be found constitutional.  He said the City would fight it all the way to the Supreme Court. The City’s attorneys have asked the judge in the case for a judgment, so yet another ordinance can replace 2903.  A law suit blocking the new ordinance has already been filed, but my opponent has assured the citizens of Farmers Branch that the newest ordinance will be found constitutional.

My opponent also said legal costs of fighting the lawsuits against the rental band would be partly covered by the City’s insurance.   To date, the City’s insurance has not paid any of our legal bills and no payments are expected.

The City has already spent nearly a million dollars defending the lawsuits related to the ordinance.  The ultimate cost of these lawsuits against the City is unknowable, but it will certainly be several millions of dollars.  That is several millions of dollars that could have gone to build roads, libraries, swimming pools and fire stations.  These are just more examples of poor leadership that produce unintended results by my opponent.