Referendum the answer?

In June 2010, residents in Fremont, Nebraska, a city of 26,000 about 35 miles northwest of Omaha, approved an ordinance through referendum that prohibits landlords and employers from hiring or renting to illegal immigrants. Supporters said the measure was needed to compensate for a lack of federal law enforcement of immigration violations.

The referendum process is not easy and there is always someone on the other side who loses the vote who wants to challenge it one way or the other.  Lake Worth is an example of that. In Fremont, the referendum (a direct vote where the entire electorate is asked to vote on the issue) went all the way to the Appellate Court because some losers and diehard liberals thought it discriminated. They were wrong.

The ordinance requires potential renters to apply for a license, and through the application process Fremont officials can check to see if the prospective renters have legal status. If they can't prove legal status, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said no one had to rent to them.

Of course, here in Lake Worth, the city does everything possible to accommodate them. 1,500 showed up this month for free identification cards and passports by a program hosted by the PBSO. We pay the sheriff over $14 million a year! Landlords rent to illegals by the thousands. The government obviously wants to make the lives of illegal immigrants easier as well as the pocket books of slum lords larger. The citizens of our city are trying to figure out how to "enhance" the communities and how to communicate to those who crossed our borders illegally that they need to play by our rules--a lofty but futile endeavor.

Read more... about denying housing and jobs to illegal immigrants in a Nebraskan town.