Fremont, NE doubles down on the stupid

[knapplc]

LINK to what this is about

 

 

 

I did 18 years in Fremont so when I bitch at this town I'm doing it from an insider's perspective.

 

So you'll all remember Fremont's national-news making law which requires all adults in the rental market to acquire a license in order to rent, which to obtain you must prove citizenship (or right to be in America legally, as a worker). While this may seem innocuous on the surface, it is clearly aimed at one segment of the population (illegal immigrants) and will have a larger impact on legal immigrants or Americans of Latino descent who "look foreign," and that description comes from a Fremonter.

 

The employment portion of this law went into effect in 2010, but the housing portion has been suspended while they figure out the constitutionality of the law. In a recent split decision the US 8th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over Nebraska (among other states) upheld the constitutionality of the law by saying the plaintiffs failed to show that there was a "viable alternative means" that would not have the same discriminatory effect. Basically, since they couldn't provide the courts with a plan that would guarantee the folks trying to rent weren't illegal, the court upheld the law. But it was an extremely divided decision, with not two opinions being handed down (a decision and a dissent, which is typical), but three opinions. The ruling was divisive enough that even the two judges who agreed to uphold the law (or parts of it, go read about it if you care) couldn't agree on exactly why it should be upheld. The dissent noted, correctly, that every other federal court asked to hear a case like this has ruled against such local laws. Welcome to the 8th Circuit.

 

The ramifications of renting to an illegal immigrant? None - there is no federal law prohibiting such a thing, and there are no federal penalties to landlords who rent to illegal immigrants. So this Fremont law is not complying with some greater statute - it's just the people in this town being pissy about "the illegals." Again, that's a local description.

 

So Fremont, led by State Sen. Charlie Janssen, crafted this law to prevent illegals from renting or working in Fremont, and he's been talking about recalling City Council members who vote to put the law on hold. Because this is a rampant problem in Fremont, NE. Because Fremont has so many Hispanics living there, causing housing problems.

 

Except that they don't.This is a town who self-identifes as 85% White. And to many, that percentage is too low. In the 2010 census 11.9% of Fremonters identified as Hispanic. That's 3,200 people, the vast majority of whom are American by birth. Even if you tossed in all Black/African identifiers, and even if you presumed that all of them were not Americans but emigrants, that bumps your total up to 5,000 people. The reality? There are probably 1,000-2,000 Hispanic and/or African immigrants in Fremont.

 

That's who this law is aimed at. A tiny fraction of the local population. And they're going to fix this "problem" they're having of illegal immigration with this law, which prohibits renting to or employing illegal immigrants.

 

But there's a catch. Fremont's one large employer, Hormel Foods, sits outside the city limits. It employs more than half the Hispanic people working in Fremont, but falls outside the jurisdiction of this law. Further, "a fair number" (sorry, don't have exact stats here) of those workers live in Omaha, about a 20-minute drive down Hwy 275 from Fremont. So not only does this law miss the mark of employment, it also largely misses the mark of housing as well.

 

The "problem" they're trying to fix doesn't exist. And they're spending an awful lot of time and money doing it.

 

 

I could rant on and on. I grew up in this town. I attended High School with a bunch of Vietnamese kids, immigrants and asylum-seekers from the war, and I saw every day how they were treated, I heard what they were called, I saw the general demeanor of the students and faculty toward these guys.

 

Fremont is a White town full of xenophobes who want to keep it White, and they're going to enact this law based on this decision. I hope they enjoy spending millions on legal fees over the years, to the detriment of their parks and libraries and schools. Serves them right.

[rawhide]

Rumor has it back in 1968, when my parents moved from Lincoln to Waverly(all while I was working a ranch in Stuart,Ne;hmmm) that a person of color could not rent/buy a house in Waverly. Don't think it was true as there were several families of Hispanic descent living there. Probably just a mean spirited rumor.

 

One thing Knapp, the Fremont law seems to spotlight "illegal aliens". Considering the eleventy billion laws congress has instituted, don't you think there are or should be laws about illegal immigration. I know there are laws that supposedly prohibit the hiring of said population but is not enforced much.

[BigRedBuster]

Well, I would be dang embarrassed if I lived in Freemont right now.

 

I grew up and now live in an area where the first wave of hispanic immigrants came here probably 80-100 years ago. So, when I went to school, there were a lot of kids of hispanic decent but they were 2nd or 3rd generation. We didn't think anything of it. They were just another class mate. I remember a few Vietnam refugees in town. I'm don't necessarily remember a large amount of negativity towards them. In fact, a few still live around here. This might be because we already were a fairly diverse town and not 99.9% white.

 

When I was in college (late 80s) a new packing plant came in in the county and that brought an entire new influx of hispanic immigrants. There was some negativity towards them. Interestingly, some of that was from the hispanics that were already here. I can kind of see their point. When the new immigrants came into town, there were some frustrations from people already here. When the original hispanics would walk into a place, they were treated sometimes as though they were new in town instead of 3rd generation locals. But, that has settled down some since then.

 

Personally, I love living here because of the heavy hispanic influence. I believe my kids have benefited from having them in school and learning about more cultures than just rural white people. They understand more what it is like to be an immigrant and trying to assimilate to a new culture.

 

Interestingly, my kids were talking the other day about hispanic kids in their class and they were frustrated/disappointed because socially, the (new) hispanic kids tend to keep to themselves and not join in with white kids. I'm sure it's just a matter of what they feel more comfortable with.

 

Immigration law needs to be a federal issue. I remember back to a night when I was out at a local bar with a friend that came to town. He got all frustrated because there were all these "Mexicans" there. I finally asked him...."How am I supposed to know which are legal and which are illegal? And, "Why would it be right for me to treat all of them as though they are illegal when I know there are many who are legal?" He never could see my side of it and I lost a ton of respect for the guy that night.

 

I fully understand the problems illegal immigration can cause in some areas and I am not saying something doesn't need to be done or changed. It clearly does. However, on a local level, I fail to see how I can sit here and discriminate against a group of people who actually come here to WANT to work and earn a living for their families and raise them in a low crime area relative to where they came from.

[Omaha-Husker]

Fremont is a municipality clinging to glory days that never existed.

[knapplc]

One thing Knapp, the Fremont law seems to spotlight "illegal aliens". Considering the eleventy billion laws congress has instituted, don't you think there are or should be laws about illegal immigration. I know there are laws that supposedly prohibit the hiring of said population but is not enforced much.

 

The law specifies "illegal," yes, but that's not how it will be applied. It will be applied (by some, not all) at any person of non-White descent they think is perhaps kinda illegal. At the same time, only cursory inspections will be given to Whites trying to rent. I cannot cite examples, for reasons, but please just trust me this is how some landlords will apply this law. And that is discriminatory, and it has a chilling effect on non-Whites when they're looking for a community in which to live.

 

It is not an accident that so many people who work in that Hormel plant live in Omaha. It's not cheaper to live in Omaha, just more tolerant than Fremont.

 

And to be very clear, this is not the entire town of Fremont. There are many great, wonderful people there. It's just that their voices are often drowned out by the people I despise. Drowned out 59-41 percent, unfortunately.

 

 

 

What frustrates me most is the mindset, and the preying on fears that promulgated this law. The "them" this law is protecting the citizens of Fremont from doesn't exist. The people who pushed this law sold it on the fear of "them" taking over "our" town, because "they" are not like "us." That town is 85% White, in a county (Dodge) that is 96% White, surrounded by counties that are 98% White (Saunders & Washington) and 82% White (Douglas). They are not being overrun by immigrants, legal or illegal. There is no problem that they are fixing. This law is intended to dissuade "them" from ever coming in - because if you're Hispanic, why would you want to live in the town that made national news for voting in this kind of law?

 

 

 

 

The dumbest part about this is something BigRedBuster alluded to - it's actually pretty cool to live in an integrated community. You learn more things. You experience more things. You get different (often pretty good) food. It boggles my mind that a nation created almost solely of immigrants now has such a huge issue with immigrants.

[BigRedBuster]

Fremont is a municipality clinging to glory days that never existed.

 

 

Hey now...they did have the Lariat Club.

[BigRedBuster]

The dumbest part about this is something BigRedBuster alluded to - it's actually pretty cool to live in an integrated community. You learn more things. You experience more things. You get different (often pretty good) food. It boggles my mind that a nation created almost solely of immigrants now has such a huge issue with immigrants.

 

DAMN amazing food.

[knapplc]

Fremont is a municipality clinging to glory days that never existed.

 

 

Hey now...they did have the Lariat Club.

 

Don't forget Boomers. Although both were utterly forgettable.

 

 

 

To expound on what Omaha-Husker said, Fremont could be a much larger, more vibrant community than it is. The people who have run that town for the past 50 years like it as a small community, and they have actively sought to keep it that way. When I was a wee lad in the 1970s Fremont's population was 23,000. Today it's 25,000. In contrast, Norfolk, Grand Island, Kearney and Columbus have all grown much larger, much faster. Columbus in particular has benefited from Fremont's "keep it small" mentality by snagging several businesses that wanted to go to Fremont first, but Fremont wouldn't work with them. "We have Hormel" was always the mindset, and to this day Hormel is the largest employer in that town. Look at the proliferation of meatpacking plants on the Highway 30 corridor between Schuyler and Columbus - a lot of those plants wanted to locate in and around Fremont, but... they aren't there.

 

Why? Because the xenophobes figured it would bring in "them," and they didn't want that. They wanted Fremont to remain this idyllic little burg where they could continue to live the quiet life, untroubled by all that nasty stuff population growth brings. You know - people who don't look like us. The bad people

[Cina]

I'm with you on the distaste for Fremont. I worked at a camp outside that place for 7 years. The Fremont Wal*Mart at 1am is like a dream you'd have after eating a bunch of Taco Bell and chasing it with some Ambien.

 

It's a town in it's own little bubble, it seems like. And the cops...

[BigRedBuster]

It is unbelievable that Freemont hasn't grown at all being only 20 minutes away from Omaha and 75 minutes away from Lincoln.

 

I think that tells a lot about the perception and management of the city of Freemont.

[rawhide]

I don't think any law will/can prohibit people from discriminating against whom they deem "those kinds". But you have to fight the good fight. There is always going to be small/narrow minded people. Elephants, Donkeys, libtards or baggers.

 

 

Notice how I left out Independents

[knapplc]

It is unbelievable that Freemont hasn't grown at all being only 20 minutes away from Omaha and 75 minutes away from Lincoln.

 

I think that tells a lot about the perception and management of the city of Freemont.

 

Exactly. Fremont would be an ideal bedroom community for Omaha execs who work in Omaha but want to live in a quieter town. With the HWY 275 expansion to a four-lane freeway between the two towns, getting to Fremont after work would be a snap. But very few people do that, and again, that's not an accident. If you're not from Fremont, you're not likely to move there.

[knapplc]

I don't think any law will/can prohibit people from discriminating against whom they deem "those kinds".

 

True, but when you're creating laws that essentially encourage discrimination, you're doing it wrong.

[Omaha-Husker]

Fremont is a municipality clinging to glory days that never existed.

 

 

Hey now...they did have the Lariat Club.

 

Don't forget Boomers. Although both were utterly forgettable.

 

 

 

To expound on what Omaha-Husker said, Fremont could be a much larger, more vibrant community than it is. The people who have run that town for the past 50 years like it as a small community, and they have actively sought to keep it that way. When I was a wee lad in the 1970s Fremont's population was 23,000. Today it's 25,000. In contrast, Norfolk, Grand Island, Kearney and Columbus have all grown much larger, much faster. Columbus in particular has benefited from Fremont's "keep it small" mentality by snagging several businesses that wanted to go to Fremont first, but Fremont wouldn't work with them. "We have Hormel" was always the mindset, and to this day Hormel is the largest employer in that town. Look at the proliferation of meatpacking plants on the Highway 30 corridor between Schuyler and Columbus - a lot of those plants wanted to locate in and around Fremont, but... they aren't there.

 

Why? Because the xenophobes figured it would bring in "them," and they didn't want that. They wanted Fremont to remain this idyllic little burg where they could continue to live the quiet life, untroubled by all that nasty stuff population growth brings. You know - people who don't look like us. The bad people

 

Very much so. I have family that have grown up, gone to school and worked all over Fremont. Family coaching a varsity sport at Fremont high, another teaching at a grade school, another on the Greater Fremont Development Council. My grandmother worked at Bergan for decades my grandfather ran grocery stores in town his whole life. They are all a part of the 41% that find this ridiculous. It stifles business growth which basically is a death sentence for a city like Fremont that wont retain their high school grads. Instead of being a great satellite city that feeds off the massive growth in Omaha it is a rapidly aging black eye on the state.

[teachercd]

It is unbelievable that Freemont hasn't grown at all being only 20 minutes away from Omaha and 75 minutes away from Lincoln.

 

I think that tells a lot about the perception and management of the city of Freemont.

 

Yep!

Heck, doesn't it have a nice lake area too, yet, no one goes there.