Growing Anti-Immigrant Sentiments in an Unlikely State

[sonomak]

Source: New York Times

Nebraska may appear to be an unlikely setting for swelling anti-immigrant sentiment. This agricultural hub is far removed from any border. It has long been more preoccupied with bolstering its population than keeping people out. And immigrants, legal and otherwise, have been fixtures for years in the fields and meatpacking plants here, helping this state put meat and vegetables on dinner tables around the country.

But even as the state enjoys relative economic health — unemployment, at 4.6 percent, is the third lowest in the nation — illegal immigration has taken a more central and more divisive place in the politics of communities like this one, visibly transformed by an influx of immigrant newcomers. That shift in political dialogue has been propelled here by Gov. Dave Heineman — even before it was a national issue. Four years ago, Mr. Heineman, a Republican, made his unyielding opposition to illegal immigration a central part of his underdog campaign for governor.

Now, as a popular incumbent heavily favored to win, he recently announced that one of the first acts of his second term would be to press for a law that would make it easier for local police officials to arrest illegal immigrants, which he said would be closely modeled on the controversial law adopted in Arizona that is now being challenged by the Obama administration in court.

“I’m very adamant about this — the federal government has failed to solve the immigration issue,” Mr. Heineman said in a recent interview in his offices in Lincoln, where the shelves are stocked with college football paraphernalia and the ceilings and walls are adorned with murals celebrating cultures from around the world. “Next January I believe in every state in America there will be an Arizona-type law introduced.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/us/politics/03nebgov.html

[customerserviceguy]

1. As I've long argued

Illegal immigration has some very real costs for rural economies. The farmer and the factory owner get cheap labor, but the local hospital, educational, and judicial systems bear some very heavy costs. I've seen it in person in the rural counties of Western Washington, and while illegal immigration might be a boon to an urban or suburban economy, it really takes a heavy toll on the small towns and agricultural counties.

I'm not the slightest bit surprised to read the article in the OP.

[DCKit]

2. New Idears from the Plague on Amurka. n/t

[liberal N proud]

3. Not unlikely

Nebraska is like Iowa, full of meat processing plants who once employed local people at a very good wage. These were union jobs.

Most of those facilities are not full of immigrant workers and a less than living wage. These people have moved into the communities, set up their own cultures including business supporting the immigrants.

The locals are all angry and their anger is not focused at those who brought in the immigrants to do the work they once did, but at the ones who are as they would put it infiltrating their communities.

I know this because my father worked in one of those facilities in Iowa and have watched in happen.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[man4allcats]

9. Well said.

I see this kind of behavior a lot from Hispanics in the area where I live. I can understand why someone might run almost any risk to escape the poverty and violence of Mexico, but you don't come into someone's house (or country) uninvited, act like a jackass and then expect them to extend you all the courtesies of a member of the family.

[liberation]

10. So the Catholic church is "brining" muslims to this country.

Yeah, that logic makes total sense! All hail the mighty Catholic church who can bring people into this country out of their whim....


BTW, in the circumstantial argument you were proposing you could exchange "Mexicans" for "Italian" (or "German" or "Irish") for example, and voila you would have some of the same talking points regarding the dangers of immigration from 100, 125, or 150yrs. Here is where the US was in the XIX century, see back them it was the 'only' the "Irish" the ones bringing all the trouble for the clean and ever so pious nativists:


Uncle Sam’s Lodging House (1882) - Of all the immigrants, only the Irishman is causing trouble.


The Mortar of Assimilation (1889) - Again, only the Irish immigrant is causing trouble.


At least people now are not using the pertinent racial slur for minorities or draw them as monkeys, in the open, when referring to them, so that is some progress. So congratulations I guess...

[marmar]

16. Wow, just wow.

If only those Hispanics would act like a good minority, and learn to love their slave-wage jobs. :eyes: Unreal.

[depakid]

4. Hard to get more provicial and xenophobic than Nebraska these days.

Even Idaho's not gone this far over the deep end.

[Downwinder]

5. Lets see what it is like when they can't get their crops in like CA.

When this happened before, the Okies filled in. Will there be migrant workers from the cities doing agricultural work? Do they have the necessary knowledge or work ethic?

[lbrtbell]

7. Wow, where do I start?

You're implying that city people don't have skills or a work ethic? You're not well-informed enough to know that white teenagers do the detasseling and other unskilled labor on the fields of places like Nebraska and Iowa? You don't know that machines do most of the work on those fields, and that this has been the case since the days when said machines were powered by horses?

We're not talking about California ag practices here. In the Heartland, the vast majority of Hispanics and other immigrants work in meat packing plants, not on fields. White people, farmers and teens, do nearly all of the farm work.

[independent_voter]

8. I must not be an American, because every job I've ever done is a job 'Americans wont do'

delivering newspapers, detassling corn and walking beans (weeding), working fast food, small manufacturing, and writing-integrating every kind of software there is

I cant count the number of times I've had someone in my face telling me that Americans are too lazy to do the things I've done - and I was never considered an espeacially hard working kid either - just a typical kid

oh, and my family has been in the midwest since 1859

[txlibdem]

13. Jobs Americans won't do

That's always been a load of crap. Look at the high school dropout rates here in the US. The millions of young kids who need work but can't find it would agree with you.

And the construction industry has been taken over by the illegals because they'll work for next to nothing and will keep their mouth shut and not question the boss even when he is wrong. There are millions of Americans who would fight you for those jobs. Yet they are locked out of them because of the color of their skin.

[pampango]

11. "“He is pandering to the least common denominator,” Mr. Meister said. “Our fear of difference.”

Mike Meister, a Democrat who is running against Mr. Heineman, has strongly opposed the proposal (an Arizona-like immigration law), which he said was “clearly unconstitutional” and would waste money by forcing the state to fight an inevitable lawsuit. Mr. Meister, a lawyer who is trailing badly in the polls, accused Mr. Heineman of using the proposal as a wedge issue. “He is pandering to the least common denominator,” Mr. Meister said. “Our fear of difference.”

[txlibdem]

12. Not an "anti-immigrant" sentiment - an "anti-ILLEGAL-immigrant" issue

My friend from high school paid almost $10,000 to get his wife here from Europe. He had to get certifications that she had a medical examination (no AIDS, TB, etc). She had to undergo a criminal background check. They had to get a background check to make sure she was not affiliated with the Communist Party. He had to make several trips to get all the paperwork worked out. All told it took him over 6 months to get it all done.

Compare that with some unknown person just walking across the border. They could be a carrier for a deadly disease, there are no medical exams so we don't know. They could be a terrorist, there are no detectors or luggage checks. They could be a criminal, nobody has to sign off that this person's background has been looked into. It might cost them nothing but a couple of jugs of water and a new pair of sneakers. Yeah, this is fair to those who do the legal thing.

My buddy always gets fuming mad when the topic comes up because of all he had to pay and how much time away from work he had to take and all the waiting in lines and waiting for your name to be called. It was like a 6-month ordeal with the DMV, it seems.

[COLGATE4]

14. Your frriend is missing the point. These people come here illegally

because there is no legal mechanism for them to do so. If the process for an American citizen's wife is such a hassle (and I know it is, my wife is foreign) imagine what the process for an unskilled laborer might be like if there even were such a process. However since there really is none, they are left with the choice of either staying where they are or trying to come here illegally. I don't mind having people follow the rules when there are rules to follow, but let's not pretend that all these Latinos are coming across risking their lives in the desert because they prefer to do that rather than experience sometyhing like a "six month ordeal with the DMV".

[txlibdem]

15. My friend understands that there is no legal mechanism

for a neighbor to be able to take his big screen TV. It is a super nice big screen TV with all the benefits that come from having the top of the line.