FARMERS BRANCH — On Friday, September 12, 2008, the city of Farmers Branch found itself the target of a complaint filed in federal court against the city's insistence of trying to enforce a city-wide ordinance that would require all renters to register their presence with the city and obtain an occupancy license.

The complaint was filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Texas. The complaint charges that Farmers Branch Ordinance 2952 violates the U.S. Constitution and federal and state statutes by trying to enforce immigration law, a responsibility of the federal government.

Though the city has tried twice before to enforce the ordinance, and both times it was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge, the city refuses to give up. The latest attempt was to start enforcement of the renter's ordinance on Monday, September 15, 2008.

"Far from curing the defects of the previous ordinances, the new ordinance continues to violate the Constitution. Rather than ending the city's misguided meddling in people's lives, it seeks to expand its reach by subjecting everyone to this intrusive registration and licensing regime, which would expose private domestic arrangements and personal details," noted Omar Jadwat, staff attorney for the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project.