Boycott the Dallas Cowboys?

What do the Boy Scouts of America, Chuck E. Cheese, ExxonMobil, Kimberley-Clark, Michaels Stores,Zale Corporation and the Dallas Cowboys all have in common?

They’re all headquartered in the sprawling Dallas suburb of Irving Texas. Maybe I should — like the New York Times does when covering large suburban expanses around Mexico City — refer to the otherwise unremarkable place as a “teeming slum”, but having spent time in Bedford (next door), it’s just another sprawling office/housing complex, no different than Bedford — or Euliss, or Hurst, or Plano.

OK, so Irving is the home of Chuck E, Cheese, Kleenex and the Cowboys.  I guess there are a few things you might need to go there for… unless, of course, you’re that third of the local population that is considered “Hispanic.”  Or you’re “visiting while brown.” Or a Mexican citizen. In that case, you better check your roadmap, and watch what street you go down around the west end of Dallas…

Isabel C. Morales and Brandon Formby filed the story on the Mexican Consular Warning in last Friday (21 September)’s  Al Dia/Dallas Morning News.

Mexican Consul Enrique Hubbard Urrea has issued an unusual warning to immigrants from his country: Avoid the city of Irving.

Deportations in this city have skyrocketed in the last several months – from 262 in all of 2006 to 1,338 through mid-September.

“In this city, one has to be extra careful,” he told Al Día . “And if possible, avoid going through there, because we suspect, and with good reason, that people are being detained simply because of their appearance.”

At least 1,600 people have been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement since June 2006 as part of the Criminal Alien Program, which provides for round-the-clock communication with federal authorities and is designed to detain illegal immigrants who have been accused of a crime.

The program is the latest tool being used by local governments – in the absence of a federal overhaul of immigration laws – as they struggle with problems created by illegal immigration. Some residents in Irving have complained that illegal immigrants have transformed the city in negative ways – with too many people crammed into dilapidated homes, and neighbors parking too many cars in their yards.