local government

Written by Lisa R. Pruitt Anyone who is following the debate about immigration and its reform in the United States is familiar with rhetoric disputing what America's core values are as a means of supporting the competing visions for who gets to be an American--or, at least, who gets to be in America legally.   Those opposing immigration talk about how the newcomers are changing America too much.  Those in favor of more lax immigration laws remind us that the United States has always been a nation of immigrants. Nowhere is this debate being waged more vigorously than in what might be thought of as America's heartland.  I was reminded of that fact this morning when I read that 57% of voters in Fremont, Nebraska, population 25,576, voted in favor of an ordinance that will "banish illegal immigrants from jobs and rental homes."  One of the things that makes the Fremont ordinance unusual among anti-immigrant activity by smallish local governments is that residents demanded this referendum--taking the matter all the way to the Nebraska Supreme Court--after city officials voted against such an ordinance.  Interestingly, the primary reason that the city's political leaders opposed the ordinance appears to be the litigation it is likely to prompt--litigation the municipality can hardly afford.  Read more here and here.