In June voters in Fremont, Neb., passed a controversial ordinance that would ban businesses from hiring illegal immigrants and landlords from renting to them, but now the town has put the law on hold in anticipation of a long legal battle. City "Council President Scott Getzschman said the decision does not mean the council is disregarding the results of the June 21 public vote to ban the housing and hiring of illegal immigrants in the city," Cindy Gonzalez of the Omaha World-Herald reports. "Rather, he said, the council is anticipating a court order to temporarily block enforcement of the law anyway. He said suspending the ordinance could hold down legal fees."
"Truly, the temporary restraining order was imminent," Getzschman said after the vote. "We were advised that if we actually suspend the ordinance ahead of those legal proceedings, we’d have an opportunity to possibly reduce costs." He added, "Costs are costs, and it’s saving money we don’t have." Similar ordinances in Hazelton, Pa., and Farmers Branch, Tex., have yet to be enforced four years after their passage due to costly legal battles. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund have filed federal lawsuits against the Fremont law, Gonzalez reports. (Read more)
On Wednesday, one day after the city council voted to suspend the law, a federal judge declined to rule on the civil rights groups' lawsuit because she wasn't sure whether the matter was an issue for state or federal court. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp asked both sides to submit written arguments in two weeks, Juan Perez Jr. of the World-Herald reports. "Attorneys on both sides agreed that the ordinance is appropriate for federal review, but Smith Camp chose to err on the side of caution," Perez writes.(Read more)
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