I ran across this article than ran in the Chron on Sunday, and it reminded me that I had wanted to put together a time line of the research I have done on this subject.
First, there was a meeting in Farmers Branch, reported on here (I orginally linked here), and during which Tim O’Hare set out his points for ways to improve Farmers Branch. The meeting took place in April, 2006. He did not mention immigrants of any status in his suggestions.
Then there’s this blog entry from Angel Reyes, an attorney with whom Tim O’Hare met. (The orginal link is in the same blog post as above.) While it’s dated November 17, 2006, Reyes states that he met with O’Hare “in the not-so-distant past” about taking some cases. During that discussion, O’Hare stated his ambitions: after city council, run for mayor, and then when his term was up, he’d be “the ‘go to guy'” in Farmers Branch. O’Hare said nothing about immigration at that time, and Reyes noted that most of the case concerned people with Hispanic sirnames and that O’Hare’s lawfirm advertised that Spanish speakers were welcome.
Then last summer, the mayor of Haelton, PA was all over the news with his proposed ordinance called Illegal Immigration Relief Act. The Farmers Branch ordinance, offered in November, 2006 , is very similar to the one in Hazelton. I wonder why?
I have several posts in my Immigration category about things that have happened since. I find it remarkable that O’Hare still claims, after being debunked over and over again (here’s just one of many), that immigration is related to property values or crime.
Tim O’Hare is your typical hypocritical conservative. I’m so tired of them.
calle viena 
If anything, more people in a geographic area translates into more demand for housing. Even the most clueless economist can figure out what impact that has on housing values so I would think that the self proclaimed superiority of some online with regard to money issues (especially those who are just to the right of Attila the Hun like Rors) would try a different angle by now.
Crime is another area where the simplicity of thoughts is astoundingly naive since other than their status, most illegals are more likely to be victims of crime than the perpetrators. It is all well and good to use anecdotal evidence to “prove” the case that illegals cause crime but the closer you look at the numbers, the weaker that correlation appears to be. More people equals more crime but the numbers that have been published to date don’t show that illegals disproportionately cause more crime or you’d see the braindead 740 crowd on AM radio jumping all over the stats.
Politicians are opportunists. Even guys that stink up debates with hurt personal feelings as they spend endless hours online taking credit for heinous acts seem to realize this fact. Some are better than others but the best way to keep such demagogues in check is to keep them out of office when they start jumping on the latest populist bandwagon, especially radio show hosts turned state senators. 😉
Hi Peter, thanks for visiting and commenting — it will probably take me a bit of time to respond to all of you comments — but since it’s pouring outside and I can’t work out in the yard — I have the time 😉
WRT housing in Farmers Branch, I have read in different places — blogs and news articles — that O’Hare in particular wants FB to become one of the more upscale Dallas suburbs. That he decided the best way to do this was by singling out one particular group — a very vulnerable group — is espcially cravenly.
It’s the same with the crime issue. Late last year I remember there was a buzz in the wingnutosphere about a report that showed illegals murder 15 people per day. It turned out that the person touting the stat was a republican congressman from NY state — who wrote the report and had no back up for his assertion.
p.s. wrt your email address, I think I know but am not 100% sure.
What bothers me is how so many people will automatically “know” the truth based on little more than wild guesses unsupported by anything of substance. Extremists from both sides of the political spectrum fall into this trap, acting like they have some sort of insider information. The latest blog example of this would be your former pal Jason telling the world about Coyotes scheming to do in cops, an idea that someone pointed out as being pretty lame given the stealth Coyotes embrace in their dealings with the law.
I’m dying to see if Stanley spews his latest anti-everyone-but-him style rant against immigrants, supported by his GOP thugs that will undoubtedly follow their holier than thou double standards yet again. Be it campaign reform, taxation, or term limits, they always manage to find just the right bleeding edge of “what’s good enough for you needn’t be applied to us” way of looking at things. Then, when someone points this out, the hate crowd does its best to marginalize detractors, be it using the degree of patriotism, the emotional content, or any other artificial means of cutting off those so bold as to speak out.
Peter
Tell me who you are.
I’ll delete it afterwards.
Or don’t. I just can’t peg you even though you think I know.
you claim that I know you
I thought I did, but then I thought no.
sorry my email isn’t on the blog
no need for a bio — just enough to clarify.
Show me a link to your email, even a temp account like yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc, and I’ll send you a biography if you like. 😉
Peter, just in the off chance that you read this, all I’m curious about is whether I know you from bloggin or in real life.
If I know you from blogging — which one?
I went to school with him. We were never friends. I was a misfit but infamous, at least that’s how I remember it. His friends were the Caucasian guys that were the popular handsome jock sort. Still not sure how he was allowed in. He didn’t leave much of an impression so I don’t really recall a personality.
I almost walked up to him at the polls when I went to vote for his opponent during his re-election bid. He was standing outside I guess waiting to coerce a few more votes. I wish I had stopped, but I probably would’ve slapped him. He really wasted so much taxpayer money and I remember that we Hispanics were looked down on by most if the lily white residents during that time. I’m so glad he failed. I hear he has children now, that’s good. I always got a gay vibe from him. Oh well, at least he is in Tarrant County now.