Dueling North Texas Mayors on Immigration
Farmers Branch Mayor Tim O'Hare told KRLD's Chris Salcedo this afternoon that his efforts to drive illegal immigrants out of his city have been largely successful. That's despite the fact that the city's ban on renting to illegal immigrants was found to be unconstitutional and the city's legal bill for defending it has been pushed up into the millions of dollars.
Mayor O'Hare (pictured) says the Dallas Morning News is playing a game of fuzzy math, but he also says the city has spent millions of dollars in its fight to rid the city of illegal immigrants. You can call that semantics if you like.
Audio of the mayor after the jump...
You can listen to the mayor make his case here:
Podcast
Two things:
1 Mayor O'Hare says that the number of drivers found to have no car insurance has dropped in recent years, which he cannot tie directly to immigration status. Plenty of citizens in Texas have no car insurance. That's why the state has been cracking down on uninsured drivers. The number of them has been steadily dropping all across the Great State, even in cities that aren't Farmers Branch.
2. The Mayor argues that when Farmers Branch started participating in the "Criminal Alien Program," in 2007-08, the level of illegal immigrants incarcerated there was 14 to 20 percent. Now, the number is around 4 percent. While that's fair, it has nothing to do with the ordinance that was struck down on constitutional grounds.
Mayor O'Hare tells me Farmers Branch has never been sued over the 287 (g) program or C.A.P. program. So, obviously no left-wing groups have a problem with those efforts. When left-wingers have a problem with something, there's usually a lawsuit or at least the threat of one.
UPDATE at 9pm: When we discussed this on the program tonight, Irving Mayor Herb Gears (pictured) called in to say politicians need to stop grandstanding on this issue and do the kind of thing they're doing in his city. I didn't even know it was him at first. Listen to that call below:
Podcast
This could be he rekindling of an old feud. Apparently, O'Hare and Gears have traded barbs about this previously.
Your thoughts are welcome in the comments section below.
