The Tomball City Council voted down several anti-immigration measures at a Sept. 6 meeting after more than two hours of heated debate from citizens from all parts of the Houston area.

The council considered plans to adopt English as the official language of the city; to disallow illegal immigrants to rent or own property, or own a business in the city; to mandate that businesses the city contracts with use only legal workers and, the most hotly-debated topic, whether or not to close the city’s Day Labor Site.

None of the measures passed, with most failing by a 3-1 vote.

The items were co-sponsored by city councilman Derek Townsend, who has spoken out against illegal immigration since being elected to the council last year.

“This is not a race issue for me,” Townsend said at the time of the vote. “It’s not about race, it’s about legalities.”

The meeting brought out a standing-room-only crowd to City Hall, one that the Tomball Police Department and Fire Marshal’s Office were at times called upon to restrain. More than 150 people, including at least six network television station news crews, crammed into city hall with dozens more waiting at the doors to get in.

Nearly all were there to either voice their opposition or support for the Day Labor Site and the anti-immigration measures.

For the past ten years, the City of Tomball has paid about $1,400 a year in ad valorem taxes on a 3-acre site just west of the city’s railroad tracks off Main Street for day laborers seeking work. Earlier in the summer, it was brought to the council’s attention that the contract with the property’s owners, Frank and Russell DeNina, had expired and was up for renewal.

In the end, the council decided to renew the lease, but not fund the portable toilets at the facility. Councilmen Rick Brown, Preston Dodson and Mark Stoll each voted to retain the site, while Townsends voted against the measure.

Townsend initially proposed a plan that would require those who utilize the site to wear a city-issued ID badge that ensure their legal residence and ability to work in the country.

However, members questioned how a badge system would function and how it would be enforced.

“How do we differentiate from using any other public place,” Dodson said. “If you go there, you can’t go here…There is not a rational difference. If he (a day laborer) walked from the Day Labor Site to the Depot, he’s home free.”

“I’m not in favor of shutting it down because we don’t have any answer to what happens after we shut it down,” he added.

Stoll said he was in favor of paying the ad valorem taxes, but “minimizing expenses,” and said the city should look to private donations to cover the cost of electricity.

The renewal discussion ignited a debate that saw several protests in the city and culminated with the meeting last week.

About 40 people, many of whom came from surrounding communities, addressed the crowd and the city council, pleading with the council to either pass the measures, or vote them down.

Al Navarro, a minister for the Hispanic congregation at a Tomball church, asked the council to keep the Day Labor Site open.

“What I want to allude to as a minister is human rights, and having a little bit of mercy to people who are down,” Navarro said. “I hope we don’t get so legalistic that we lose the human touch.”

Mark Dague, who has lived in Tomball for the past 20 years,

“I do wonder how this problem has been enabled by our town’s leaders,” he said.

“It’s not about racism, it’s about preserving our country, stopping the give-away entitlements that so man of our political leaders are in favor of,” he said.

An unofficial tally of those who spoke during the public comment reveals that of the 19 residents of the City of Tomball, 15 expressed their support in keeping the Day Labor Site Open.

Of the 20 non-city residents, 13 asked the council to close the site, with some claiming members of the city government were “communists.”

One of those was Gary Von Rosenberg of Klein, who said he has worked as a substitute teacher in Tomball ISD.

Von Rosenberg said the city has been turned over to “the communist attack dogs” by violating federal laws.

Dr. David Smith, a representative of the Progressive Workers Organization, traveled from La Marque to ask the council to keep the site open and “reject anti-immigration legislation.”

When it finally came time to take action on the agenda items, it became clear early on which direction the council would take.

After Townsend explained that adopting English as the city’s official language was “more symbolic,” it was voted down, 3-1, with Townsend being the lone dissenter.

“I don’t see how English symbolism will advance the interests of Tomball,” newly-elected councilman Preston Dodson said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

An item that would disallow illegal immigrants to rent or own property, or to own a business in Tomball never gained steam after none of the council members, Townsend included, seconded the motion to vote on it.

Councilman Rick Brown cited costly lawsuits other cities were involved in that tried to pass similar laws.

“I’d sure hate to take our people down that route,” Brown said.

Dodson, a Tomball attorney, added said that if the city were to lose such a lawsuit, they could be facing additional fees due to a plaintiff in the case.

“Every lawsuit I have seen has lost,” Dodson said. “We would have a very difficult time defending this.”

The one issue council at least agreed to pursue was the adoption of a policy that requires companies the city contracts with to hire legal, documented workers.

City Attorney Scott Bounds explained that state and federal laws already exist pertaining to the issue, but the city could adopt it as a policy.

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