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Excerpt:
The following is from the May 13, 2007, edition of The Dallas Morning News

Immigrant proposal wins easily

By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL
The Dallas Morning News

Farmers Branch voters' overwhelming embrace of a law to drive out illegal immigrants – which backers celebrated Saturday as "nothing but positive" – may lead to similar measures across North Texas and the nation, analysts say.

The nation's first vote on an ordinance targeting illegal immigrants by barring them from renting apartments highlighted a resentment of the federal government's failure to secure the nation's borders – and a desire to do something about it at the local level, said City Council member Tim O'Hare, who was the driving force behind the ordinance. . .

Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said the implications of the Farmers Branch election may be felt more in cities elsewhere.

"Farmers Branch is a closed-in suburb of a major American city," Mr. Wilson said. "This is not some sort of remote, rural outpost. Farmers Branch is a pretty mainstream place, and if there is this level of anger about the immigration situation there, then what that suggests is there's probably a lot more of this kind of anger around the country."

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