Earlier this week, Farmers Branch, TX overwhelmingly approved an ordinance aimed at keeping illegal aliens out of the city:

Voters in Farmer’s Branch became the first in the nation today to prohibit landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants.

In final but unofficial reports, the ban was approved by a vote of 68 percent to 32 percent.

Predictably, groups like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund have joined up with the ACLU and a whole cadre of others to sue Farmers Branch into oblivion. Absurdly, a group calling itself “Let the Voters Decide” attempted to prevent that very thing from happening:

Days before the vote, Let the Voters Decide issued an absurd news release in which it managed to scare up a couple of University of North Texas professors to issue a “study” – little more than a clumsy polemic – arguing not only that illegal immigration is not a societal drain, but that it is a net benefit to a community.

Farmers Branch is not alone. Around the country, 100 municipalities have taken up the federal job of enforcing immigration law in one way or another.

In Pennsylvania, 32 municipalities have considered or enacted resolutions – such as making English the official language, cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and punishing landlords who rent to them. In California, 13 cities have passed or considered local laws to crack down on illegal immigrants and push for comprehensive immigration legislation. The list goes on.

And state legislatures in all 50 states, dissatisfied with congressional inaction, are considering more than twice the number of immigration-related laws as in previous years – with most imposing tougher restrictions on illegal immigrants.

The message to Congress, some say: If you can’t do it, we will.

And in Hazleton, PA, the incumbent Republican mayor has won both the GOP and Democrat primaries to keep his job. Why?

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta, who gained national prominence by targeting illegal immigrants living in his small northeastern Pennsylvania city, cruised to the Republican nomination for a third term on Tuesday – and unexpectedly won the Democratic nomination, too.

Barletta trounced GOP challenger Dee Deakos with nearly 94 percent of the vote. And he beat former Mayor Michael Marsicano for the Democratic nomination by staging a last-minute write-in campaign, all but guaranteeing himself another term, unofficial returns showed…

Barletta, a businessman who took office in 2000, proposed the Illegal Immigration Relief Act last year after four illegal immigrants were charged with shooting and killing a man.

The measure, on hold due to a legal challenge by Hispanic groups and individuals, was approved last summer and emulated by towns and cities around the nation. It would penalize landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and businesses that hire them.

It’s against this backdrop of grassroots moves against illegal immigration that the Bush administration and the Dem-controlled House and Senate move to pass “comprehensive” immigration reform, which amounts to an amnesty for the millions of illegals already here.

Never mind the continuing effects of unfettered illegal immigration on national security: The day labor center that facilitated 9-11 is still there. For a war president, President Bush is awfully slow to secure the country’s first line of defense, its borders.

Bush apologists see “comprehensive immigration reform” as one of the last remaining shreds of his legacy that remain viable. At Ft. Dix we very nearly suffered a terror attack on US soil facilitated by the porous border. What would that have done to the president’s legacy?