Fremont, Neb. Votes to Retain Ban on Renting to Illegal Aliens
Voters in Fremont, Nebraska resoundingly defeated an attempt to repeal an ordinance that requires all renters to attest they have legal permission to live in the U.S. Unofficial election results show that the repeal attempt failed by a 60-40 margin.
The ordinance requires anyone who rents a home or apartment to apply for a $5 permit and attest to their legal status. Landlords are required to check whether their tenants have permits or face a $100 fine. The petition-driven ordinance originally passed in 2010 with 57 percent of the vote.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other pro-illegal alien organizations sued to overturn the ordinance shortly after passage. The case eventually reached the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld most of the ordinance in 2013. The city council, which had opposed the voter-created ordinance from the beginning, chose to schedule a vote to repeal the measure rather than enforce it.
John Wiegert, who helped organize the petition drive that originally put the ordinance on the ballot, said “The mayor and city council need to listen to the people. The people have spoken twice.”
Matt Kwiatkowski, an ordinance supporter, said the country should enforce laws against illegal immigration. “I think more towns need to do this given that the federal government isn’t doing its job,” Kwiatkowski said. He hopes Fremont’s ordinance will pressure Congress to crack down as well.
It is not clear how many illegal aliens reside in Fremont. Census figures say 1,150 noncitizens live in the city of 26,000, but that number includes legal immigrants and lawful permanent residents as well as illegal aliens. Illegal aliens are thought to be drawn to the area by jobs at the nearby Hormel and Fremont Beef plants.
Fremont also adopted in 2012 an ordinance that requires employers to use E-Verify to check the workplace eligibility of new hires.
Read more in the Washington Post.