NEBRASKA: Fremont clergy consider impact, pastoral response following immigration vote
Episcopal News Service. June 23, 2010 [062310-02]
Pat McCaughan
The Rev. Jay Gabb was "disappointed" but realistic June 22, a day after voters approved an ordinance to bar undocumented immigrants from renting, residing or working in Fremont, Nebraska.
As the part-time interim rector of St. James -- the only Episcopal congregation in the small meatpacking town of 25,000 -- Gabb considered the vote's impact on daily life and how to reach out compassionately to those on both sides of the issue.
"I know there are some parishioners at St. James who probably voted for it and I know there are a number that voted against it," said Gabb, who the previous Sunday had challenged the congregation to "agree to disagree" and to make an informed choice when casting their votes June 21.
The ordinance comes two months after a similar law was passed April 23 in Arizona making it illegal for undocumented immigrants to be in the state.
After the special election in Fremont many U.S. citizens of Hispanic background "are feeling very isolated ... like this has put an immediate target on their back," added Gabb.
"The people who voted for it are saying that the law is black and white and they don't want any of their money and support going to anyone who is not fully legal. It's a very divisive issue for the community," said Gabb, who belongs to the Fremont Area Ministerial Association, a group of about 60 local pastors who publicly opposed the ordinance.
Indicative of the measure's divisiveness, news that voters had approved the ordinance 57-43 drew an immediate challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union in Nebraska.
"If this law goes into effect, it will cause discrimination and racial profiling against Latinos and others who appear to be foreign born, including U.S. citizens," said Laurel Marsh, ACLU Nebraska executive director in a statement posted on the group's website.
"The ACLU Nebraska has no option but to turn to the courts to stop this un-American and unconstitutional ordinance before the law goes into effect. Not only do local ordinances such as this violate federal law, they are also completely out of step with American values of fairness and equality."
Despite public opposition from civic and other officials, including FAMA, residents of the suburban Omaha city approved the controversial ordinance by nearly one thousand votes, 3,906 to 2,908 votes and not everyone was sure why.
The vote propelled the tiny town -- far from any international border -- into the national spotlight amid claims that outside influences were involved.
Becky Gould, executive director of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest charged that the proposal "has been peddled by a national organization in small towns around the country" to incite divisiveness and mistrust.
"In the complex and politically charged issue of immigration, it takes time to counter fear and misinformation and to share the facts," added Gould in a statement posted on the non-profit, non-partisan agency's website after the election.
She cited other cities where the Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reformor FAIR "has sought to test its legal theories on several towns, promoting the same language in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, Branch, Texas, and other municipalities, without regard for the costly outcomes and community divisions it leaves behind for local residents."
The estimated costs of defending the ordinance are as high as $1 million per year, based on legal battles in Hazleton, which passed an ordinance in 2006 to fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny permits to businesses hiring them. The Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch also has tried for years to enforce a ban on landlords renting to illegal immigrants. Federal judges struck down both ordinances, but both are on appeal.
The Fremont City Council rejected the immigration proposal in 2008 but the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled supporters could circulate petitions and gather signatures to put the issue before voters.
Kansas City, Missouri attorney Kris Kobach, who authored the Arizona immigration law which aims to target and deport the undocumented, reportedly helped to write the Fremont ordinance.
Kobach told ABC News that lack of federal enforcement has prompted states and cities to act. He said that Nebraska, although not a border state, is still burdened by the impact of illegal immigrants. "Every state is a border state now, to some degree," he said. "You have different states experiencing illegal immigration in a different way."
The Rev. Scott Jensen, a chaplain and president of the Fremont Area Ministerial Association, said fear, anger, and frustration are the driving force behind the ordinance. "It's been incredibly challenging for our ministers to address the issue" especially when parishioners disagree, he added.
"But as a church we are called to speak the truth. And the truth is we have to find ways practically and effectively to demonstrate love and compassion to our neighbors, whether they are Hispanic, Latino, Caucasian, whatever ... with an eye toward reconciliation, grace and mercy, even to those we disagree with."
Kristin Ostrom, a co-chair of "Nebraska Is Home Fremont," a local effort to promote a united community, said tensions over the issue had in many cases resulted in a "code of silence," making people fearful of losing their jobs if they spoke out about the ordinance.
Under the new law, anyone over 18 would have to be licensed to rent living space, "including Grandma at the nursing home. They have to go to the police department to fill out a form to say whether or not they're a legal resident," she said.
With 3,800 rental units and a 50 percent turnover rate, enforcement of the ordinance would require an estimated three police officers to handle the licenses, available at a $5 per person fee, she added.
The Rev. Ernesto Medina, priest-in-charge at St. Martha's Episcopal Church in Papillion, Nebraska, and a member of the Latino Center of the Midlands board, said he served as "part of a group of six official observers," during the June 21 special election.
"We wanted to make sure that there was an open process for Latinos that wanted to vote," Medina said. "As it turns out, the majority of Latinos live outside the city limits and aren't able to vote."
Medina described the conflict as a clash of perceptions, with ordinance supporters claiming undocumented workers are taking away jobs "and that Latinos are taking some of the social services away."
In recent years the Hispanic population of Fremont, about 35 miles northwest of Omaha, has grown to about 7 percent, or to an estimated 2,000 last year compared to about 165 in 1990. Fremont has a 5 percent unemployment rate, lower than the national average of about 9.7 percent.
Medina said that the church needs to find ways to be more prophetic and to "proclaim the holiness of all people" especially involving fear-driven issues such as immigration.
Ostrom, who is also involved in "One Fremont, One Future," hopes to overcome that fear by bringing people together for future community forums.
Jensen agreed. "We've put some feelers out. We are trying to bring key people on both sides together and see if we can't find a way to dialogue about where go from here, how we work together to make Fremont continue to be the great community that it's been."