TMCnet News
Latino seeks council seat in immigrant-phobic Texas town(EFE Ingles Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) By Jose Luis Castillo Castro. Farmers Branch, Texas, Dec 29 (EFE).- The passage by the town council in this Dallas suburb of a set of anti-immigrant measures has inspired real estate broker Guillermo Ramos to launch his bid to become the first Hispanic councilman in the history of Farmers Branch. The town clerk on Thursday certified more than 900 signatures - over the amount required - of the some 1,400 delivered more than a week ago in support of an initiative to stop implementation of the package, which includes bans on employing or renting to undocumented immigrants. According to one of the ordinances, landlords who rent to undocumented foreigners could face fines of up to $500 a day for each violation. But because enough valid signatures were submitted, the Farmers Branch town council must either repeal the measure or hold a plebiscite in the coming days on the issue. Ramos, born in New York to Peruvian parents, was part of the group Let the Voters Decide, made up of more than 80 volunteers from northern Texas who went door-to-door in the city to gather signatures from registered voters. But he wants to go a step further and battle for respect and equal opportunity for Hispanics in the political arena. "How can almost 40 percent of the population of my city be Latino and there's no one to represent them? We need 'a face' they can relate to," Ramos told Efe. "I don't understand why no Hispanics have run before, but I think it's time now." Currently, the five seats on the Farmers Branch town council are occupied by non-Hispanic whites, but in the first few weeks of January Ramos will present the formal petition required to be able to run in municipal elections in May. He said he wants to work to improve the lives of members of his community by bettering the quality of education for Latino children and improving relations between Hispanics and the local police department. "Many Hispanics do not take their complaints or (report) crimes to the police because they think they could be arrested because of their condition as migrants. We need a campaign (that addresses that problem)," said Ramos, whose family moved from New York to north Texas when he was barely four years old. "I plan to create an education program for Hispanic children that links their parents with the social system of Farmers Branch so there's a better understanding among all the parties," said the fledgling politico, who started his real estate business at the age of 19. Ramos, who says he does not only want to represent the concerns of Hispanics, but instead of all the residents of Farmers Branch, has led several public protests in the suburb against the rules, which were proposed by councilman Tim O'Hare and are slated to take effect on Jan. 12. He has also filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that members of the town council violated the state's open-meeting laws during their closed-doors debate of the anti-illegal immigration measures. Ramos, who has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of North Texas, said he thinks the "the moment of truth has arrived for Hispanics," not only in his city but in all the neighboring municipalities. "And I know I'm going to come across many who oppose the idea of a Hispanic sitting on the council. The only thing I can say to these people is that no matter how much they fight they're not going to be able to prevent the inevitable, which is Hispanics' laying claim to our (rightful) place in this society." EFE jlc/mc Copyright 2006 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc. |