Farmers Branch Texas Ordinance Struck Down: Villas v. The City of Farmers Branch, Texas
City of Farmers Branch, Texas had enacted an Ordinance that required property owners/landlords to determine if a tenant or a prospective tenant was in eligible immigration status. The United States District Court of the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division held that the Ordinance is preempted by the constitution and federal law. The court found the Ordinance to be an impermissible regulation of immigration "which is a regulatory power reserved for the federal government".
The court reached this conclusion despite the city's efforts to prevent such a conclusion by stating in the Ordinance that the intention of the city "is not an attempt or effort to promulgate new and additional immigration laws or to conflict in any manner with the federal government's promulgation and enforcement of immigration laws". Not even the city's invocation of ยง 287(g) INA was enough to stop the court from striking down the Ordinace. Read full text: http://www.aclutx.org/files/080528%20FBMSJOPinion.pdf