Villafranca started making

Villafranca started making the rounds this week at apartment complexes, urging tenants to stand their ground. “These people are so scared to death,” she says. “But this ordinance will never see the light of day.” The day after the vote, a few Hispanic immigrants held impromptu garage sales and said they planned to move. The apartments across the street—and city lines —had already hung new banners advertising “Se habla espanol” and made a point of their location—Carrollton, Tex.“I’m afraid of course, like everyone,” Abigail, a 22-year-old cook who would only give her first name, says in Spanish. She arrived from Mexico five years ago, and doesn’t have residency. “But truthfully, I don’t know yet if I’ll move.”
For those who remain, Farmers Branch seems forever changed. Vanessa Alonzo, a 24-year-old dry cleaner attendant, says many of her longtime customers have begun to treat her differently. One asked her, unprompted, whether she had a green card. (She does.)
Another said he thought all the Mexicans should leave. “It didn’t used to be like this,” she says. “Now they look at you and see you’re Hispanic and they think you’re illegal.”
Mayor Phelps hopes passions will cool. Until then, “The people have voted and we’ll get on down the road. That’s all we can do. It’s in the judge’s lap now.” He won’t run again for mayor, but he won’t forsake Farmers Branch. “We don’t want to move,” Dee Phelps says. “Our church is here, our family, our friends. Also our enemies, now.”