Nebraska Town Could Limit Job, Housing Opportunities for the Undocumented

Residents in the small city of Fremont, Neb., which has seen an influx of Hispanics attracted by local jobs, will vote today on a controversial measure to ban businesses from hiring or renting property to undocumented immigrants.

Today's vote comes after a two-year long process engaged by proponents of the Fremont immigration proposal who are fighting what they believe is poor immigration enforcement by the federal government, job loss to undocumented immigrants and a drain on the city's resources.

A recent Lincoln Journal Star article chronicles the immigration debate in the town:

Hispanics began showing up in much larger numbers in the 1980s and 1990s to take jobs at places such as Fremont Beef and Hormel, two of this community's biggest employers.

Meatpacking towns Madison, Schuyler and Lexington are examples of other smaller places where Hispanics make up a much bigger share of the local population in Nebraska. But it was Fremont that started to move into a special and very visible place in July 2008 in the battle between local, state and national immigration forces.

In front of an audience of more than 1,000 people, the city council deadlocked 4-4 on an ordinance that would ban the hiring and harboring of residents without legal status in the United States.

Next came a petition drive to force a public vote that quickly reached the threshold of 3,000-plus signatures, a district court decision upholding a special election and, earlier this year, a Supreme Court decision supporting the lower court.

Fremont's measure doesn't come out of the blue. The city has seen a dramatic change in the make up of its population in recent years. According to an Omaha World-Herald article, the city has experienced a population growth that's 85 percent foreign-born in the last 10 years. "Fremont added more than 900 Hispanics since 2000 while the white non-Hispanic numbers dropped by about 550," wrote Cindy Gonzalez of the World-Herald.

Since then, the immigration debate in the town has been brewing. And it was Fremont residents, not politicians, that were pushing for the ordinance. "When it passes, it sends out a message to illegal aliens that they're not welcome here," said one of the three main proponents of the law, Jerry Hart of the petitioning group Fremont for Illegal Immigration Enforcement.

Fremont's proposed law, like Arizona's SB 1070, has become a nation symbol of how local governments are dealing with the immigration issue. But it isn't the first city to attempt an immigration law that would make it a crime to employ or rent housing to an undocumented immigrant. More than 40 cities across the country have considered immigration measures like Fremont's at one point, but only a few have drawn nationwide attention.

Farmer's Branch, Texas, a Dallas suburb became the first city to ban landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants — a battle that's still going on now — and Hazelton, Penn. is considered to be the first American city to pass an ordinance addressing illegal immigration. Opponents of the Fremont measure worry that passing it could set a legal precedent and encourage other communities to draw up similar measures.

If challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups, Fremont could face some serious consequences: A yearly legal cost of up to $1 million, higher taxes, and city layoffs.

Julissa Treviño is a staff writer for Campus Progress. She graduated from Ithaca College in 2009.

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