Free Republic

After months of legal wrangling, voters in Fremont will be asked next month to weigh restrictions on hiring and renting to illegal immigrants. But the same concerns of racial profiling that threaten to derail a new Arizona law empowering police to question suspected illegal immigrants are being raised in this eastern Nebraska city, and Fremont officials suggest the measure's passage would prompt lawsuits. Kristin Ostrom, who helps oversee the "Nebraska is Home" campaign in Fremont, which touts the benefits legal immigrants bring to the community, said racial profiling is already on the rise. "Hispanic citizens now have been targeted and...

In the eyes of those who want to crack down on illegal immigrants, a Fremont case heard by the Nebraska Supreme Court on Thursday is all about banning employers and landlords from hiring and renting to undocumented residents. But attorneys arguing for the city and for citizens who circulated petitions to get the ban on the city ballot focused instead on when a judge can intervene in a contested election. Higher profile differences about local and state involvement in immigration law in Nebraska will have to wait. "I don't think the word 'immigration' came out of my mouth this morning,"...

"The melting pot" analogy for immigration has taken on new meaning in this city of 25,000. It could be said that the heat has been turned up here and that the bubbling contents of the pot are coming apart rather than coming together. Behind is a summer unity picnic in which Kristin Ostrom, Gabriela "Gabby" Ayala and other members of a group called Nebraska Is Home tried to ease the tension between the white population and Hispanics and other relatively new immigrant faces. Ahead, as early as November, is a court confrontation in Lincoln for which other Fremont citizens have...

A judge has ruled that residents of Fremont can vote on a proposal to bar anyone in the city from hiring or renting to illegal immigrants. Dodge County District Judge John Samson on Monday dismissed the city of Fremont’s claim that it can’t legally enact the proposed ordinance because it is pre-empted by federal law, among other arguments. Samson wrote that he didn’t have jurisdiction to rule on the matter unless the voters first approve the initiative. Petitioners turned in more than 3,100 valid signatures to force a special election on the proposal, which is similar to one the Fremont...

A proposed ordinance targeting illegal immigration in Fremont may be dead, but the discussion of the problems fueling the debate is just getting under way, say those involved in the issue. Fremont Mayor Don “Skip’’ Edwards cast the deciding vote late Tuesday night against a proposal that would have banned renting to, harboring and hiring illegal immigrants Fremont is, however, the first Nebraska city to attempt such a proposal, said Norm Pflanz, an attorney with Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest. Other communities, including Hazleton, Pa., Escondido, Calif., and Riverside, N.J. have attempted similar measures but have...

OMAHA — A Nebraska city is the latest community to try its hand at regulating illegal immigration — a job traditionally reserved for federal officials. A proposed ordinance introduced by the Fremont City Council earlier this month and set for decision in late August would force prospective renters to prove they’re not illegal immigrants before becoming tenants in the city. A city councilman also has asked to make the measure prohibit hiring illegal immigrants. Supporters say the law is needed to enforce federal rules they believe are falling by the wayside in the city of 25,000. Opponents of the measure...