A Look At The Fremont Nebraska Immigration Law

It has been some time since I last posted on Ron Speaks Out.  I don’t have a shortage of complaints or kudos; I just haven’t had the time to write some of the things running through my mind.  An experience today compelled me to write.

More than once I can remember working on roofs during my youth.  It didn’t matter if it was our house, our garage, or my grandmother’s house, the work was hot and it was dirty.  Removing old shingles was the fun part because it involved tossing them down from the roof, usually at an unsuspecting younger brother.  Carrying rolls of tar paper and asphalt shingles up ladders was not fun.  We did not have nail guns-each nail was pounded in by a hammer we wielded. Kneeling on hot shingles pounding nail after nail is no one’s recreation. Like I said, it was hot, it was dirty work.

Maybe that is a poignant memory of my youth, but it is certainly not one I want to relive.  The memory was revived by seeing a crew hard at work on my roof today.  Like several hundred other houses in Fremont, my house was hit by severe hail earlier this summer.  At least 10 roofing companies have spent time in Fremont this summer, some with multiple crews.  Virtually every member of every crew is Latino.

You may have heard of Fremont.  My home town is the local community version of Arizona, having just passed an immigration law in June (which will not go into effect until any and all suits filed against the city regarding this law are settled).  I voted against the measure and felt like enough members of the community were enlightened and would vote against such a measure.  Much to my anger and shame I was wrong.

Fremont has a growing Latino population.  It is home to a large Hormel & Company packing plant, as well as Fremont Beef Company, a smaller meat packing operation.  Latinos are attracted by what they see as good wages and benefits, though the jobs are dangerous and hard.  My dad worked as a ham boner for Hormel for 30 years and it took a toll on his health. 

Older people and ignorant people called the new law “the Mexican law,”  a statement that basically lumps all Latinos into the illegal immigrant classification, when 90% or more are not illegal immigrants at all (the most liberal of guesses as to Fremont’s illegal immigrant population was 200 out of over 2,000 Spanish speaking people living here).

Another statement that older and ignorant people make is “I fear my safety with all the Mexicans living in this town.” A simple reading of court dockets shows that there are as many Caucasian names going before local judges as Spanish sounding names, and the felony charges are roughly the same. 

A third statement is that “Mexicans use the hospital emergency room for treatment, and then don’t pay and it comes out of our taxes.”  Officials of the Fremont Area Medical Center say this is not true, that workers at Hormel and Fremont Beef have health insurance benefits.  A similar one is that “children of illegal immigrants are flooding our schools, and their parents pay no taxes.”  Well, if their parents live in an apartment and pay rent, someone is paying taxes on the building.  If they own a car, they are paying taxes and license fees. 

Finally and here is the point of talking about the roof on my house, Latino immigrants and not taking away jobs from “American citizens.” Caucasians do not want to work in packing plants anymore-as I said, it is a dangerous, tough job.  My dad suffered numerous aches and pains, and two serious injuries during his time at Hormel-a steam hose swept over his feet, severely burning one, and his razor sharp knife slipped off a bone and severed a tendon in his thumb, resulting in the need for transplant surgery. 

Again, Latino immigrants are not taking away jobs Caucasians find as desirable.  “American citizens” don’t want to work in a damp, cold environment with razor sharp knives and saws. Caucasians may own roofing businesses, but you don’t find many whites nailing shingles to a roof in the 90 degree heat of a Nebraska summer.  Find a job that Caucasians find undesirable and it is filled by an immigrant.  No “citizen” is losing a job.

Fremont may spend millions of dollars on lawsuits from the enactment of an illegal immigrant law which basically discriminates against all people of Latino descent.  Wouldn’t a better use of resources be to develop programming to help each culture learn more of the other and that though we are all different, we all have basic needs that are the same.  Let’s build on those similarities.

Thanks for stopping by.

~ by Ron Meyer on August 7, 2010.