Editorial

Local laws put spotlight on U.S. immigration issue

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Nebraska is once again in the middle of a national debate, with the city of Fremont joining the state of Arizona in attempting to deal with the illegal immigration issue on the local level while Washington sits on its hands.

Passed over the objection of local leaders, the Fremont ordinance would require employers to use a federal online system to check whether a person is permitted to work in the United States. The ordinance also would require people seeking to rent property to apply for a $5 permit. Those who said they were citizens would receive a permit and would not have to provide documents proving legal status. Those who said they weren't citizens would receive permits, but their legal status would be checked. If they were found to be in the country illegally and were unable to resolve their status, they would be forced to leave the property.

Landlords who knowingly rented to illegal immigrants could be subject to $100 fines.

Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp said she wasn't sure she had jurisdiction in a combined lawsuit seeking an injunction against enforcement of the law, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund, also known as Maldef.

Both say the ordinance is discriminatory and sought preliminary injunctions to keep the ban from being enforced while the lawsuits proceeded.

The judge wouldn't rule until she was satisfied the challenge should be heard in federal court.

Also on Wednesday, a judge blocked the most controversial sections of Arizona's new immigration law from taking effect.

Those sections require officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws. The judge also blocked a part of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.

It's easy for those of us in other plain-vanilla parts of the country to pass judgment on Arizona and Fremont, where demographics have been markedly changed by an influx of Hispanic workers, many of them here illegally.

It would be dishonest to say there aren't elements of racism in support for the local ordinances, both in Arizona and Fremont.

But fairness and justice must also be acknowledged in dealing with those in this country illegally, and the national government can no longer look the other way.

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