**
DCG posted: " Fox News: Opening the door for the town of Fremont to
begin enforcing its law and offering implications for other cities with
similar ordinances, a federal appeals panel on Friday upheld an eastern
Nebraska city's ban on renting to people who aren't" Respond to this
post by replying above this line
New post on *Fellowship of the Minds*
<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/author/dcgere/> Common sense
prevails: Court Upholds Nebraska Town’s Ban On Renting To
Undocumented
Immigrants<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/common-sense-prevails-court-upholds-nebraska-towns-ban-on-renting-to-undocumented-immigrants/>
by
DCG <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/author/dcgere/>
[image: common
sense]<http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/common-sense.jpg>
Fox
News<http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2013/06/29/court-upholds-nebraska-town-ban-on-renting-to-undocumented-immigrants/?test=latestnews>:
Opening the door for the town of Fremont to begin enforcing its law and
offering implications for other cities with similar ordinances, *a
federal appeals panel on Friday upheld an eastern Nebraska city's ban on
renting to people who aren't in the U.S. legally*.
*Fremont voters handily approved a measure in 2010 that bans hiring or
renting to people who can't prove they are in the country legally.*
Last year, U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp ruled that parts of the
ordinance *denying housing permits to those not in the country legally
were discriminatory and interfere with federal law*. But the city has been
enforcing its requirement that businesses use federal E-verify software to
check on potential employees.
On Friday, two judges of a three-member panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals rejected that reasoning, leading the majority to reverse
the ruling and vacate the lower court's injunction against that part of
the ordinance. Judge James Loken wrote that the plaintiffs failed to show
the law was intended to discriminate against Latinos or that it intrudes
on federal law.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they will confer with their clients before
determining whether to ask the full 8th Circuit to review to the case.
The ruling appears counter to decisions in other courts on similar local
laws, said Aaron Siebert-Llera, an attorney with the Mexican American
Legal Defense and Educational Fund who represented several U.S.-born
Latino home renters and a Fremont landlord who challenged the ordinance.
Siebert-Llera noted that two other federal appeals courts ruled against
the communities of Farmers Branch, Texas and Hazelton, Pa., which have
similar laws targeting landlords and employers to dissuade them from
renting to or hiring people in the country illegally. Both cities have
appeals pending before the full federal circuit courts.
"You've got the U.S. Senate passing sweeping immigration reform. You've
got this huge, nationwide change going on," he said. "Then you have a
decision like this coming out."
The American Civil Liberties Union, which also sued over Fremont's
ordinance, bashed the 8th Circuit opinion. "The court majority failed to
recognize that Fremont's attempt to exclude undocumented illegal immigrants
from the city's borders is not only un-American, it's unconstitutional,"
said Jennifer Chang Newell, an attorney for the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights
Project.
Eighth Circuit Judge Steven Colloton agreed with the reversal and vacating
of the injunction, but said the plaintiffs lacked standing in the case,
meaning they did not show how they had been or could be harmed by
Fremont's law.
Siebert-Llera took issue with that opinion, noting that one of the
plaintiffs showed she was forced to buy a mobile home, because she could
not find anyone who would rent to in Fremont.
In a dissent, Judge Myron Bright agreed with the lower court that parts of
the ordinance interfere with federal law.
"*The ordinance will impose a distinct burden on undocumented persons illegal
immigrants by preventing them from renting housing in Fremont*," Bright
wrote. "This denial of rental housing is paramount to removal from the
city. And, as the Supreme Court has made clear, removal is entrusted
exclusively to the federal government."
Kris Kobach, a Kansas attorney who represented Fremont and helped draft
its ordinance and others around the country, lauded Friday's opinion and
said it will have implications for both Farmers Branch and Hazelton as
appeals courts look at their ordinances.
"And I think it has indirect implications for cities all across the
country, and certainly cities in Nebraska, that may wish to take similar
steps to stop the negative effects of illegal immigration," Kobach said.
Kobach said as soon as next week, the city will begin enforcing the part *that
requires all renters in the city to apply for an occupancy permit and
denies those permits to people not legally in the country*.
The ordinance stirred a whirlwind of controversy in June 2010, when *roughly 57
percent of Fremont voters who turned up at the polls supported it*. The
measure catapulted the city into the national spotlight and spurred
comparisons with Arizona and other cities embroiled in the debate over *
(illegal)* immigration regulations.
Fremont, about 35 miles northwest of Omaha, has seen its Hispanic
population surge in the past two decades, largely due to the jobs available
at two meatpacking plants just outside the city. Census data show the
number of Hispanics soared from 165 in 1990 to 3,149 in 2010.
It's unknown how many immigrants not legally in the country may live in
Fremont. According to census figures, 1,259 noncitizens live there, but
that figure includes people living in the U.S. legally.
Fremont city officials declined to comment Friday, saying they wanted time
to review the ruling.
DCG
*DCG <http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/author/dcgere/>* | June 30,
2013 at 4:30 am | Categories: illegal
immigration<http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/?cat=34958091>|
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