Vol. 74/No. 27      July 19, 2010

This town of 25,000, located 35 miles west of Omaha, whose main industry is two large meatpacking plants, drew nationwide attention leading up to the vote.

The new law makes it a crime to harbor, hire, or rent to undocumented immigrants, and gives local police authorization to ask people for their immigration papers. The law does not apply to the two meatpacking plants, which are outside city limits and employ many of the 1,100 immigrants who live in Fremont.

“This is bad,” Gustavo Monterroso, 23, told the Militant. Monterroso works at the Hormel plant south of Fremont. The plant’s workforce includes many immigrant workers born in Mexico and Central America, as well as a number born in the United States. Of his U.S.-born coworkers, Monterroso said that “some were for us, some not.” He said he has experienced verbal abuse in the town. “Some people tell us to go back to Mexico,” he said. “We pay rent, we pay bills, but some people don’t like us.”

A Mexican-born factory worker who asked that her name not be used told the Militant, “They are discriminating against us. We come here to work and to make a better life, not to take anyone’s job. Sometimes we can’t make a living in our countries. People are worried about what the cops are going to do now.” She said that where she works the U.S.-born and Mexican-born workers get along.

Supporters of the Militant visited Fremont three times in the six weeks prior to the vote, going door-to-door in trailer parks where most residents are immigrant workers, as well as talking to shoppers in the local Walmart parking lot. They found a variety of reactions to the measure.

A week before the election, one African American worker of Jamaican descent said she was undecided on how to vote. A high school student told us he was “totally against” what he called “that racial profiling measure.” An older U.S.-born worker said, “I’m for legal immigrants, but if you’re illegal, get out!” A U.S.-born woman said, “I hope people here will come to their senses and vote against this law.” Some people turned away from us and said they didn’t want to talk about the vote.

An effort to pass the measure in the city council failed 5-4 in 2008, with Mayor Donald Edwards casting the tie-breaking vote against the ordinance.

Following that defeat, supporters of the bill collected more than 3,000 signatures to put the question on the ballot in a special election. Charging that the law would be unconstitutional, the city council sued. In April the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in favor of holding the vote.

Some of the measure’s opponents focused on anticipated costs the city may incur as a result of lawsuits against the ordinance. The law is “going to have negative consequences for this community for many years to come, increased taxes, more government spending, and more conflict,” Kristin Ostrom, who is active with “One Fremont-One Future,” a group that campaigned for a “no” vote, told the press.
 
 
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