Unwelcome homes: Cases restricting renters' rights warrant attention in South Texas

Two similar court cases involving immigration deserve attention from Rio Grande Valley residents and others who are interested in the reach of local and federal governments into private lives and contracts.

Rental property owners and others are asking courts to impose an injunction to prevent the city of Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb, from enforcing its ordinance requiring all renters to get residency licenses, and holding landlords criminally liable if any resident turns out to be in this country illegally.

Meanwhile, Hazleton, Pa., officials are appealing a federal judge's ruling that a similar ordinance against hiring or renting to undocumented immigrants is unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge James M. Munley ruled that the ordinance the Constitution's due process and Supremacy clauses. The city has appealed to the 3rd Circuit Court, which oversees Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, and is scheduled to argue its case Oct. 31.

The latter, part of Article VI, states that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and thus overrides any legal rulings made within individual states. The Due Process clauses provide that every person is entitled to equal treatment under the laws. It is important to note that the Fourteenth Amendment, which clarifies the concept beyond the Fifth Amendment, makes clear distinctions between rights reserved for citizens ("No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ..." and all residents, regardless of legal status "... nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Legal issues aside, we find such ordinances poorly thought out. Merely passing an ordinance does not automatically give landlords the necessary resources and knowledge to adequately determine a resident's or applicant's legal status. They might provide documentation, but many people have been found to have forged or stolen documents that have fooled trained Customs and immigration officials. Prosecuting landlords for mistakenly accepting a bad document seems unreasonably harsh.

Such ordinances essentially require private residents - the landlords - to enforce federal law by verifying the legal residency of other private individuals. Such edicts are unreasonable and should not be allowed.

The Hazleton ordinance provides that the city will take the residency application required of new residents, and forward the information to federal officials for verification of citizenship. Anyone who has requested public information from the government is well aware that such requests can take days to fill, or they can take years. One can't expect a renter to wait extraordinary amounts of time to find out if he can move in to the city.

Logistically such ordinances make little sense. It's no secret that a significant amount of property on South Padre Island is held in long-term leases to Mexican citizens who use them for vacations or business trips. Because their trips to the Island usually require little more than short-term, temporary visas, there will be times when these part-time residents will lack the necessary permits to be in the United States. They get the documents when they come to occupy the property, but shouldn't need them to simply rent it for future use.

Some federal courts have upheld cities' rights to pass these ordinances. We trust, however, that more justices see the problems they create and the human rights they impede, and strike them down.