HOUSTON -- When Tim O'Hare drives through the aging north Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch where he serves as a city councilman, he sees signs of trouble everywhere. Property values are stagnating, he says. Crime is rising while schools are declining.
And too many people are speaking Spanish.
"Our retail establishments are in deplorable shape - half of the businesses aren't filled, and the rest are filled with Spanish-speaking businesses," O'Hare said. "Our citizens are still majority non-Spanish speaking by far. Spanish probably will overtake the city if we don't do something about this."
The problems, O'Hare believes, are caused by illegal immigrants. The solution he's proposing, a city ordinance, would make English the official language of Farmers Branch and crack down hard on any landlord who rents to an illegal immigrant or any employer who hires one.
It's a position that places O'Hare in the vanguard of an English-only movement that is gaining adherents across the nation and causing alarm among Hispanic civil rights groups.
Frustrated by what they perceive as the federal government's failure to secure U.S. borders, localities are taking matters into their hands:
Twenty-seven states have passed laws declaring English to be their official language, four others are considering them, and more than a dozen towns and cities this year have either approved or are debating similar measures that seek to curtail bilingualism in governmental documents and programs.
Even more are coupling the English-only proposals with measures to block illegal immigrants from access to housing, jobs and education. More than 30 municipalities like Farmers Branch have passed or are considering such laws, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors curbs on immigration.
The measures typically require landlords and employers to verify the legal status of every applicant for an apartment or a job, or face stiff fines.
"Landlords and employers are the ones that are profiting as a result of illegal immigration," said Ira Mehlman, a federation spokesman. "Then those landlords and employers are committing everybody else in those communities to pay for education and health care, and they are subjecting neighbors to houses that are filled with 20 and 30 people sometimes."
Many Hispanic leaders perceive racism behind the new laws and foresee the backlash against illegal immigrants spreading to Hispanic Americans, the nation's largest minority group.
