US town votes on plan to ban foreigners renting homes or having jobs | World news | The Guardian

A Nebraska town, angry over a surge in the number of Hispanic residents, is voting today in a referendum on a new law that would require foreign nationals to get a licence to live in the town.

The referendum in Fremont has been prompted by a sharp rise in Hispanic people drawn by work at local meatpacking plants combined with fears over job losses and demand placed on the town’s social services because of the economic downturn.

If approved, tenants who are not US-citizens would be required to get an “occupancy licence” from the city council. Even residents of nursing homes would be required to obtain such a licence.

Federal law requires employers to verify the immigration status of workers but the proposed Fremont law would also open violators to local sanctions. Supporters insist it is not racist and is essential to protect jobs, healthcare and education for local people because the town’s Hispanic population has surged from 165 to more than 2,000 in the past 20 years.

It is unclear what proportion of those are in the US illegally but the big meatpacking plants where many work say they only employ people whose immigrant status has been verified. The Fremont Tribune has reported cases of Hispanic people, who are legal residents, being verbally abused and told to return to Mexico.

Jerry Hart, one of the three sponsors of the legislation, told the Fremont Tribune that the proposed law is in part a security measure. “The federal law was put into place for a reason – to control how many people come into this country and to regulate the people, so they don’t have communicable diseases and are not bringing in drugs or having criminal records and these people who are sneaking in – you don’t know what you’re getting. We could have terrorists and gang members and people involved in drugs,” he said.

John Wiegert, another of the sponsors of the referendum, said: “A lot of them are coming here for the American dream and they’re causing nothing but an American nightmare to me.”