FREMONT, Neb. — Voters in the eastern Nebraska city of Fremont will decide today whether to ban hiring or renting property to illegal aliens after an influx of Hispanic workers attracted by jobs at local meatpacking plants.
The vote will be the culmination of a two-year fight that saw proponents collect enough signatures to put the question to a public vote. If the ordinance is approved, the community of 25,000 people could face a long and costly court battle. Either way, the emotions stirred up won’t settle quickly.
“Even if we say ‘no’ ... we still need to say, ‘How do we get along with each other now?’” said Kristin Ostrom, who helps oversee a campaign against the measure.
The Nebraska chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has already threatened a lawsuit, and the city is worried about the cost of defending the policy. In a fact sheet posted on its website, the city estimated the legal action would cost $1 million per year to fight - costs that would have to be covered by property-tax raises and city job cuts.
Kansas City, Mo.-based attorney Kris Kobach, who worked on the Arizona law and has been in legal battles over local ordinances elsewhere, said Valley Park, Mo., paid between $250,000 and $300,000 in legal fees in a similar case. Valley Park, like Fremont, is covered by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Fremont’s Hispanic population has surged over the past two decades, boosted by recruitment to the Fremont Beef and Hormel plants, and the city maintains an enviably low unemployment rate. Nonetheless, residents worry that the jobs are going to illegal aliens who they fear could be a drain on community resources.
Clint Walraven, who has lived in Fremont all his 51 years, said the jobs should go to legal residents who are unemployed - something he believes the ordinance would help remedy. Discussions on the issue can get heated, he said, particularly if prejudice is mentioned.
“It has nothing to do with being racist,” he said. “We all have to play by the same rules. ... If you want to stay here, get legal.”
When he worked at the Hormel plant in the 1980s, Walraven said, he had one Hispanic co-worker.
From about 165 Hispanics - both legal and illegal - living in Fremont in 1990, the total surged to 1,085 in 2000, according to census expert David Drozd at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He said an estimated 2,060 Hispanics lived there last year. In May, Fremont recorded just 4.9 percent unemployment, in line with the statewide rate and significantly lower than the national average of 9.7 percent.
If approved, the measure will require potential renters to apply for a license to rent. The application process will force Fremont officials to check whether the renters are in the country legally. If they are found to be illegal, they will not be issued a license allowing them to rent.
The ordinance would also require businesses to check employees against the federal E-Verify database to ensure they are allowed to work.
Supporters of the proposal say it’s needed to make up for what they see as lax enforcement by federal officials. Opponents say it could fuel discrimination.
Results are expected tonight.
Ron Tillery, executive director of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the measure, said businesses are concerned that the E-Verify system isn’t reliable and that they would be subject to fines if forced to rely on it. He pointed out that the main targets of the ordinance - the Fremont Beef and Hormel plants - would not be covered by it anyway because they are located outside the city.
Walraven said the measure is necessary because workers send their salaries to family in Mexico instead of spending it in the city. He said Hispanic workers stand in line out the door at the post office, waiting to send off envelopes of cash.
“I understand supporting your family,” he said, “But it’s very much at our expense. We’re footing the bill.”
Those costs include spending on education and medical care, said Jerry Hart, a Fremont resident who petitioned for the vote. He said the ordinance would help curb that spending and protect jobs for legal residents.
He said it would also end the divisiveness that’s taken over the community.
“The division is because the illegal aliens are here and nobody’s taken care of it,” he said. “If it does not pass, it’s going to get worse.”
The Fremont Tribune has reported several instances of legal Hispanic residents being told to return to Mexico, including a woman who was shoved and yelled at by an elderly white man in a grocery store.
Hart said he’s been called a Nazi.
“Fear is kind of guiding,” said Ostrom, adding that frustration about immigration issues nationwide ignites a misconception that all Hispanic immigrants in Fremont are illegal.
Sandra Leffler, 69, who owns a downtown antique store with her husband, Marv, said she knows not all Hispanics are illegal aliens, but that it’s hard not to think that way. She said she keeps an eye on Hispanic customers.
“I have to admit, when I see them come into the store ... I can’t help wondering if I’m profiling someone who’s completely honest,” she said.
The Fremont City Council narrowly rejected a policy similar to the proposed ordinance in 2008, but proponents got it to a public vote and the state Supreme Court refused to block it.
State Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont, who has said he may introduce an Arizona-style bill in the Legislature next session, said it’s unfortunate residents have to decide how to vote amid threats of a lawsuit.
Janssen, who is listed as a member on the state Republican party’s website, has declined to give his position on the ordinance, saying residents need to decide on their own how to vote.
“A vote for or against the ordinance does not make you more or less patriotic,” he said in a posting on his legislative blog. “Just as a vote for or against the ordinance does not make you racist or not.” Information for this article was contributed from Lincoln, Neb., by Nate Jenkins of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 06/21/2010