By Sylvia Moreno
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 11, 2007 5:40 PM

AUSTIN, Tex., Jan. 11 -- A Texas district court judge Thursday stopped a Dallas suburb from implementing a controversial ordinance banning the rental of apartments to illegal immigrants.

The local law was scheduled to go into effect Friday in Farmers Branch, the first Texas municipality to enact laws aimed at undocumented immigrants.

Judge Bruce Priddy of the 116th District Court in Dallas issued a temporary restraining order against the city in response to a lawsuit filed by Farmers Branch resident Guillermo Ramos. Ramos sued the city last month, alleging that the Farmers Branch City Council violated the Texas Open Meetings Act by debating the ordinance behind closed doors and voting on it before residents had a chance to comment. The order is in effect until a Jan. 22 court hearing.

In November, the Farmers Branch City Council passed laws banning landlords from renting to illegal immigrants, declaring English the city's official language and authorizing local police to seek federal certification to act on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security. Farmers Branch is a community of almost 28,000 on the northern edge of Dallas. According to the 2000 Census, about 37 percent of the population is Hispanic.

The law affecting landlords subsequently was challenged by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union in one lawsuit and a group of apartment landlords in another suit, both filed in federal court. Ramos challenged the local law in state court.

The two advocacy groups are challenging the constitutionality of the Farmers Branch ordinance, saying that municipal officials do not have the authority to enforce federal immigration law. Marisol Perez, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the groups also had asked a federal judge in Dallas for a temporary restraining order against Farmers Branch officials. A decision on that request is pending the Jan. 22 hearing in the Ramos case.

"We told the judge this is a very pressing issue for us. We want to be . . . ready to go if the state court lifts" the order, Perez said.

The new law will also be the subject of a public referendum in May. A group of residents called Uniting Farmers Branch and the League of United Latin American Citizens opposing the law recently gathered more than 900 signatures of registered city voters to force a public vote on the ordinance.