Editorial

Fremont vote another sign issue must be dealt with

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Fremont, Nebraska, has joined Arizona at the epicenter of the illegal immigration debate.

Monday, 57 percent of the voters in the meat packing town of 25,000 supported an ordinance to require renters to apply for a license from the city, which can only issue it after confirming that the applicant is in the country legally.

The city ordinance, put on the ballot by voter petition over the 5-4 opposition of the city council and mayor, also requires businesses to use the federal E-Verify database to ensure employees are allowed to work.

The mayor and councillors had reason to oppose the law. They thought it would bring unwanted national attention to the city, as well as legal challenges by the American Civil Liberties Union and others -- and they were right.

Fremont, home to Fremont Beef and Hormel meat packing plants, has seen its Hispanic population surge from 165 in 1990 to 1,085 in 2000, and an estimated 2,060 today.

But we hope the vote was motivated by a sense of right and wrong -- those who would be affected are in the United States illegally, after all -- and not racism.

Whatever the motivation, Monday's vote is one more sign that the illegal immigration issue must be taken up on the national level, and soon.

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  • Good for the people of Fremont. Now it is time for the Mayor and councilors to do their job, and enforce the ordinance.

    -- Posted by Navyblue on Tue, Jun 22, 2010, at 9:21 PM
  • I personally support Nebraska adopting a similar law to the one passed in Arizona since the Feds will not enforce the law.

    -- Posted by Chaco1 on Wed, Jun 23, 2010, at 7:36 AM
  • This should be handled by the feds but the Dems see a big pool of potential voters. The U.S. has nearly a 10% unemployment rate already. The illegal folks are taking jobs away from the legal residents of America.

    -- Posted by dennis on Thu, Jun 24, 2010, at 10:50 AM
  • It would be great if the feds would handle this but adminstration after administration has punted it down the road. Since they won't deal with it states are now put in the position to protect themselves. Actually if you fator in the people whio have quit looking for work the unemployment rate is more like 17%.

    Ilegals are a huge drain the clog emergencyt rooms, make the need for bilingual clasrooms, courts,the prison population in states and nationally are a good percentage illegals. We noew have drug cartels in the US with listening posts on the top of mountains in the SW and the fed leaves them alone. This is insane and wil be coming to a head very soon over the new Arizona law.

    -- Posted by Chaco1 on Fri, Jun 25, 2010, at 8:20 AM
  • You can say all you want that the illegals only take jobs the legal immigrants or citizens of this country won't take. I will tell you from my own experience this is not totally true. I was working installing appliances in new homes being built, I also installed them in existing homes but the new homes is where the problem is. Nearly every worker was a Mexican except for the contractor himself. I'm talking about labors, carpenters, plumbers, electricians. bricklayers & landscapers. The only exception seemed to be electricians and the installation of all the new big screen tv's, stereo systems and alarm systems. These homes were mostly all multimillion dollars homes. I got to know a lot of the contractors personally and they all said it was because they could get the Mexicans for 1/4 the price of a union or journeyman craftsman, they had to pay one higher wages to be able to communicate and speak English. Go out to Calif. and look at the construction sites if you don't beleive me.

    -- Posted by geewhiz on Mon, Jun 28, 2010, at 5:21 PM
  • I have a friend that lives in Mountain View, CA., she called me the other day and wanted to know more about the Nebraska law that was just passed. She is a legal immigrant and now a citizen. She is a RN that works at Stanford University Hospital. She was happy that someone in Nebr. passed the law and then went on to tell me how they come to the hospital, can't speak English so she has to get someone to interpret, then they leave the hospital and never pay their bills and nobody can find out where they live. ENOUGH SAID!!!! GO ARIZONA AND NEBRASKA!!!!!

    -- Posted by salamat on Mon, Jun 28, 2010, at 5:26 PM
  • Did any of you see the comments made by a City Councilman in Sacramento. CA? One of the protesters was asking him if he contacted any of his constituents how they felt about Sacramento boycotting Arizona. He asked the person if they meant did he contact them for their opinion, the answer was yes. He stated of course not, he don't contact them to find out what their opinion is, they elected him so his opinion is what counts. This the problem, our Reps and Sen don't represent us, they don't care about the opinions or wishes of the people they represent.

    -- Posted by Oh what a wonderful day on Mon, Jun 28, 2010, at 5:33 PM
  • you can pass all the laws you want to but until they get enforced they are just another law on the books to make us all feel better. Can fremont afford to hire more officers to enforce this new law? Can the state of Nebraska? no.

    -- Posted by president obama on Tue, Jun 29, 2010, at 12:26 PM
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