Finally, an issue upon which The Huffington Post and theDaily Paul agree: the "licenseto rent" ordinance being considered by the voters in Fremont, Nebraska todayis a bad idea. Designed to combatillegal immigrants, the ordinance would require verification of citizenship orresidency status to: (1) rent residential real estate; and (2) to obtain employment. The sample ballot and text of the proposed ordinance can be found here.
According to an article in last Thursday's FremontTribune, the proposed ordinance would require anyone over the age of 18 to obtainan "occupancy license." Current residents of rental properties would not be requiredto get a license until they change addresses. If a child turned 18 while living in a rental property, theywould also be required to obtain a license. The ordinance would also apply to new residents inassisted-living facilities and nursing homes.
To obtain a license, a person would complete anapplication and pay a$5 fee to the Fremont Police Department. The applications would require the prospective renter to verifyhis or her citizenship or residency status. Those unable to verify their status would bedenied an occupancy license.
Fremont, a town of approximately 25,000 residents located20 minutes northwest of Omaha, seems an unlikely hotspot in the illegalimmigration debate. The homepage for the city calls it "livable and progressive." However, twoof the main employers in the area are meatpacking plants owned by Freemont Beefand Hormel. Slaughterhouses andmeatpacking plants throughout the Plains states are chiefly manned byimmigrants, frankly because the jobs are so dangerous, disgusting, and low-payingthat they are difficult to fill with people who have more options. According to Huffington Post, attractedby those jobs, the number of Hispanic people living in Fremont rocketed from165 in 1990 to 2,060 in 2009.
Beyond the obvious issues related to racial profiling anddiscrimination, this proposed ordinance could have devastating practicalconsequences if it were uniformly enforced. (And of course, if it isn't uniformly enforced, the racialprofiling/discrimination issues just get worse.) For example, read the perspective of a nursing home administrator in Fremont here. What other uses will the Fremont Police Departmentmake of the applications?
The good news — if the ordinance passes today's vote,the ACLU of Nebraska is
considering filing an immediate injunction to prevent itsenforcement.I love Nebraska – my mother's hometown is 10 minutessouth of Fremont and I've been there many times – but I agree with both theHuffington Post and the Daily Paul. This proposed ordinance is a mind-bogglingly bad idea.
Update: The Fremont Tribune reported on June 22nd that the ordinance passed 57% to 43%.
Tanya Marsh
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