Proposed ban worries Dallas-area Hispanics
FARMERS BRANCH — This Dallas suburb could become the first city in Texas to adopt a sweeping ordinance intended to keep out illegal immigrants, a cause for concern among its large minority population….”This is the first town in Texas that had the guts to do what’s right,” Susie Hart, who grew up in Farmers Branch, said during a recent demonstration outside City Hall. “The education system is tanking, health care has gone through the roof, everybody is bilingual.”….Since 1970, Farmers Branch has changed from a small, predominantly white bedroom community with a declining population to a city of almost 28,000 people, about 37 percent of them Hispanic, according to the census.
There’s a part of me that can understand the concerns of the good, God-fearing White Folk of Farmer’s Branch. No reasonable person would support or advocate illegal immigration, and I can certainly grasp that some people must be feeling a good deal of anger and frustration. Nonetheless, what sort of message does this ordinance send to the 37% of residents in Farmer’s Branch who happen to be Hispanic? That no matter how much you do for us, we still regard you as second-class citizens? We’re White, you’re not; get over it? Hey, Chico, you missed a spot with your lawnmower over there? In Texas, when you hear White folks talking about illegal immigration, it all too often is just thinly-veiled code for “I hate Brown people”.
The problem with legislating against illegals, as Farmer’s Branch has done, is that Hispanics will quite probably (and not unjustifiably) see it as a slap against them. They mow our lawns, build our homes, and pick up our garbage…and yet we still treat them as not-even-second-class citizens. White folks will see this ordinance as a victory for the rule of law; Hispanics will likely see it as just another attempt by Whites to keep them in their place. Neither view is entirely accurate, but that won’t stop the divide from deepening.
Can’t we all just get along? Apparently not.
