Something very disturbing has been happening in the United States, the land of equal opportunity: Income has become much more unequal. The U.S. is now the least equal of all developed countries.
Read morePosted In: Civil Rights & Economic Justice
Nebraska’s DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act), providing in-state tuition rates for the children of undocumented residents, survived a repeal attempt when the Legislature’s Education Committee voted 6 to 1 to kill Fremont Senator Charlie Janssen’s bill LB 657. The legislation is now dead for the remainder of the session unless Janssen can muster 30 votes to pull the bill directly onto the floor of the Unicameral. The following article from the February 15, 2011 Lincoln Journal Star provides a fuller account of this critical committee vote, which constitutes a setback for the voices of intolerance in the state.
Yet to be decided this session is the fate of LB 48, Janssen’s bill to create an Arizona-style anti-immigrant law in Nebraska.
Visit the Journal Star for more.
Read morePosted In: Civil Rights & Economic Justice
We have just received word from Nebraska Appleseed that the Unity Rally to show our opposition to the Arizona-style bill introduced by Senator Janssen, LB 48, has been postponed due to snow and ice creating hazardous travel conditions tomorrow. Thanks for your patience. The rally is now scheduled for THURSDAY, 1/27/11. Please join us on Thursday the 27th to show that Nebraska values do not support an Arizona-style law in Nebraska.
It is imperative that our state senators start hearing immediately from their constituents at home that this legislation promises nothing but trouble and heartbreak for Nebraska. The last thing our state needs now is to replicate the errors and horrors coming daily out of Arizona.
But we need to move fast. The longer this bill stays around, the harder it’s going to be to stop.
Read morePosted In: Civil Rights & Economic Justice
Dear friends,
Not content with trying to saddle Nebraska with an Arizona-style anti-immigrant law, Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont is extending his legislative crusade against people of color and seeking to abolish Nebraska’s Indian and Latino-American Commissions.
“I'm not ashamed to say I led the motion to get rid of what's formerly known as the Mexican-American Commission, and also the Native American Commission,” Janssen stated in a January 3, 2011 article in the Fremont Tribune. The current state budget crisis, he said, presents an opportunity “to get rid of a lot of programs that government doesn't really need to be in… We have too many programs and they're not run efficiently.” He said the Commission on Indian Affairs and the Commission on Latino-Americans weren’t “gone yet,” but touted the “$400,000 a year in taxpayer money” that the state looked to save from their abolition.
Read morePosted In: Civil Rights & Economic Justice
Staff Attorney for the Immigrant Integration and Civic Participation Program at Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest
In April 2010, the state of Arizona passed SB 1070, which would require local law enforcement officers to inquire into an individual’s immigration status during any lawful stop, detention, or arrest; forbid local law enforcement from releasing any person who is arrested until the person’s immigration status is determined; create a state crime for an immigrant’s failure to apply for and carry required documents; criminalize the solicitation and performance of work without proper immigration documents; authorize the warrantless arrest of certain immigrants; and allow private citizens to sue law enforcement agencies and officials if they believe they are not sufficiently enforcing immigration laws, among other provisions. After the law was passed, seven lawsuits were filed by civil rights organizations, individuals and the United States to block its enactment. In July 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton granted in part a preliminary injunction that has kept key sections of the law from going into effect. On November 1, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard Arizona’s appeal.
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