Harassment alleged in Fremont

LINCOLN — Incidents of harassment and intimidation have increased in Fremont, Neb., since voters approved an ordinance in June to clamp down on illegal immigrants, a civil rights panel was told Wednesday.

“In some ways, the special election provided a license for people to act out,” said Kristin Ostrom, an official with One Fremont One Future, a group that opposed the ordinance.

Ostrom said her group has gathered reports of 65 alleged incidents of harassment and discrimination since the June vote, including three cases that could be described as “hate” crimes. She and others said that number is probably low because Hispanics now have greater fears about the consequences of reporting incidents to police.

“It's a pattern of harassment that has been OK'd by the Fremont community,” she told the Nebraska Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

The 11-member committee held a daylong hearing at Southeast Community College to consider whether the controversial Fremont ordinance and two other civil rights issues warrant further action.

The panel also took testimony on the progress made in equalizing educational opportunities in the Omaha metropolitan area via the Learning Community structure adopted in 2006, and on the issue of whether a 2009 state law that bans illegal immigrants from obtaining state benefits had caused discrimination against legal residents.

The Fremont ordinance drew the most testimony, emotion and disagreement.

The ordinance, which is on hold as lawsuits work through the court system, authorizes fines against Fremont landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and allows sanctions against employers who hire illegal workers.

The Hispanic population is not large in Fremont — only about 2,000 residents out of 25,000 — and one estimate put the total number of illegal immigrants at between 335 and 500.

Carl Schaffner of Fremont, who was one of the initial supporters of the ordinance, said it was spawned not out of racism, but out of local residents' frustration about the lack of enforcement of federal immigrant laws.

One example he cited was the case of a friend who lost a job promotion because he couldn't speak Spanish.

Schaffner said the cases of harassment go both ways, telling the committee that he's been called names, been the subject of telephoned threats and has seen his home vandalized.

Two Hispanic women from Fremont described several incidents of rude and threatening comments directed at them and their families and said those have increased since the ordinance passed.

Leslie Velez, a junior at Nebraska Wesleyan University, said that her father, who has operated a grocery store in Fremont and has lived there 30 years, has been threatened and told to “go back to Mexico.”

Bertha Valenzuela, a 43-year-old single mother of three, said that on the day of the special election, police showed up at her home — the first time that's happened in the 10 years she's lived in Fremont. She said they came on what she said was an unmerited complaint of loud music. While at her home, they asked her two sons for paperwork to prove their citizenship.

“After this ordinance passed, everything changed,” she said, describing how she's been told to “go back to Mexico” at her meatpacking job.

Tim Butz of the Iowa-based Fair Housing Center of Nebraska and Iowa said he's fielded complaints of landlords refusing to rent to Hispanics and African refugees even though the ordinance is suspended. That would be a violation of federal law, Butz said.

Glenn Freeman of Omaha, chairman of the Nebraska Advisory Committee, said the group would meet again this winter to decide whether to pick one of the three civil rights issues for special attention. The committee can only recommend action, but through that and by exposing civil rights abuses, it can influence public policy.

Committee member Jose Soto of Lincoln said he personally wants the panel to pursue the Fremont issue.

“My fear is if we don't address this, we'll see this dynamic replicated in other communities,” said Soto, a vice president for access, equality and diversity at Southeast Community College.

Meg Morehouse of Lincoln said testimony seemed unfairly filled with opponents of tough immigration enforcement.

Committee chairman Freeman said that every effort was made to add proponents, but they declined.

Gov. Dave Heineman was among those who declined to speak to the panel or offer written testimony, officials said.

The civil rights panel was also told that a 2009 law to ensure that state benefits were not being granted to illegal immigrants was having unintended consequences.

Rebecca Gould of the Lincoln-based Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest said the state's form for individuals to attest to immigration status doesn't allow parents to attest that their children are legal residents, which may have led to the denial of services to them.

Gould said state officials had been notified but have not amended the form.

She also said the state is requiring background checks in at least two federally funded programs that do not require them

On the another issue, three officials told the panel that it was probably too soon to determine if the Learning Community has improved educational opportunities for low-income and minority students in the Omaha area.

“In terms of (academic) achievement, we're crawling and not yet walking,” said Roger Breed, the state education commissioner.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com

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