FAIRUS.org - LA RAZA PARTY, AND ACLU (FUNDED WITH YOUR DONATIONS) SUE NEBRASKA TO EXPAND MEX SUPREMACY

ACLU, MALDEF Sue Fremont, Nebraska over Immigration Ordinance
Last Wednesday, the ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) filed separate lawsuits in Omaha’s U.S. District Court seeking an immediate injunction of the city of Fremont’s new immigration ordinance. Both suits also seek to invalidate the ordinance on constitutional grounds, charging the law violates the Supremacy Clause “because it attempts to regulate matters that are exclusively reserved to the federal government.” (Fremont Tribune, July 21, 2010). In addition, the ACLU charged that the Fremont law would encourage “discrimination and racial profiling against Latinos and other who appear to be foreign born, including U.S. citizens.” (Washington Post, July 21, 2010).

The residents of Fremont, Nebraska passed the local immigration ordinance by ballot initiative on June 21 of this year. The law takes substantive steps in solving the city’s illegal immigration problem by requiring employers to use E-Verify and prohibiting landlords from renting apartments to illegal aliens. The ordinance is set to go into effect July 29.

Now, this small town of 25,000 is being targeted by two federal lawsuits. Supporters of the ordinance are defending this law as a grassroots effort on the part of local citizens to enforce federal immigration laws that have been neglected. State Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont, who supported the ordinance while he served on the Fremont City Council, declared unequivocally, “Let's make it clear that the unlawful parties here are the immigrants that chose to break federal and state laws by coming here illegally in the first place. The bottom line is that they are not ‘undocumented workers,’ they are illegal aliens.” (Fremont Tribune, July 21, 2010). Public opinion polls have consistently shown overwhelming support in Nebraska for cracking down on illegal aliens. A recent Rasmussen survey found that 73% of Nebraskans support the adoption of Arizona’s immigration law in Nebraska, the highest level of support from any state. (Rasmussen, July 19, 2010).

City officials and local supporters of the ordinance are gearing up for a pricey legal fight. The ACLU and other amnesty advocates have attempted in the past to dissuade other towns such as Hazelton, Pa. and Farmers Branch, Tex. from enforcing immigration laws with the threat of costly legal battles. Now City Attorney Dean Skokan warned that Fremont’s legal costs could accumulate to millions of dollars. Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for FAIR, described the lawsuits as an attempt to “intimidate local governments from taking action.” (Washington Post, July 21, 2010). Last week, Nebraska’s junior Republican Senator Mike Johanns introduced legislation that would require the federal government to pay legal costs incurred by local and state governments in the course of defending their immigration laws from federal government lawsuits. Johanns explained that he wanted to “level the playing field for states and communities that might otherwise be crushed financially by federal litigation.” (Lincoln Journal Star)