Attorneys argue appeal over Fremont, NE immigration ordinance

The city of Fremont might be a step closer to knowing the legal fate of its controversial immigration ordinance.

Fremont voters in 2010 approved an ordinance that requires every potential apartment renter to show proof they are in the country legally. 

A three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, meeting in Minnesota, heard arguments in the case Thursday.

Attorneys representing landlords, tenants and the ACLU Nebraska Foundation had challenged the ordinance in federal court.

In February, U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp upheld parts of the city ordinance that would require potential rental tenants to prove legal status in the United States and pay $5 for an occupancy license.

But she ruled against portions of the law that would have given the city eviction powers over tenants determined to have entered the United States illegally, saying it was discriminatory and interfered with federal law.

The ACLU and other plaintiffs appealed the housing parts of the ordinance that Smith Camp upheld.

In oral arguments Thursday, Jennifer Chang Newell, a staff attorney in San Francisco with the ACLU Immigrants’ Right Project, argued that the Fremont ordinance conflicted with — and undermined — federal control over immigration.

“Here, Fremont is trying to bypass the removal process that Congress put in place and take into its own hands the power to decide who’s allowed to live here,” she said.

“And if the city of Fremont can do it, then any city, county or state in this country can do it,” Newell said.

But one of the appellate judges questioned how denying rental housing was interfering with federal removal laws.

Another said what was obvious to him was that illegal immigrants in Fremont would know that they would be arrested and a lot of immigrants would leave, which “would interfere with the national interest to keep tabs on all illegals as much as possible.”

But Kris Kobach, attorney for the city of Fremont, said that’s all theoretical and theoretical tension with federal law wasn’t enough.

“The biggest problem for the plaintiffs here … is that they can’t identify a single federal statute that clearly conflicts with the Fremont ordinance in any way,” he said.

And, Kobach said, even if people who aren’t legally in the country can’t get a city-issued permit, they still can live in a mobile home in Fremont or stand in the street. They just cannot rent an apartment.

And he pointed to a federal law that he said points to Congress wanting to discourage the unlawful housing of illegal immigrants in subsidized housing.

As for the Fremont ordinance, Kobach said, “It’s intended to discourage unlawful employment in Fremont. It’s intended to discourage unlawful residence in the U.S., at least in Fremont, because the fiscal burdens of illegal immigration fall on Fremont taxpayers.”

Judges James B. Loken, Myron H. Bright, Steven M. Colloton will rule later in the case.

http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/attorneys-argue-appeal-over-fremont-immigration-ordinance/article_5853ae81-a160-5b6b-8574-da69af06c6d3.html