Supreme Court Declines Hearing On Nebraska Law Barring Rentals To Undocumented Immigrants

A law passed in 2010 in Fremont, Nebraska which bars landlords from renting homes to undocumented immigrants will remain valid after the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge on Monday. Reuters reports that plaintiffs represented by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) had sought an overturning of an appeals court’s ruling on the case, which found that the Fremont ordinance does not discriminate against Latinos or conflict with federal immigration law. The Associated Press notes that this year, the Court has declined to consider challenges brought by two other towns in Pennsylvania and Texas to lower court rulings striking down similarly anti-illegal immigration ordinances.

The Fremont ordinance requires potential renters to first obtain a $5 permit from the city. Applicants must show proof of legal residence, to be verified by city officials against federal records. Also in the law is a provision requiring employers to use E-Verify to check a prospective employee’s immigration status before hiring them. The law accuses undocumented immigrants of placing a “fiscal burden” on residents by displacing American workers and “increasing the demand for and cost of public benefits and services." The city of 26,000, located about 35 miles from Omaha, has seen its Hispanic -- and noncitizen -- population jump in recent decades, drawn by jobs at nearby Hormel and Fremont Beef plants.

The ordinance passed in 2010 with 57 percent of the vote in Fremont, according to NET Nebraska, and survived a referendum on it this year, when almost 60 percent said they wanted to keep the ordinance. The ACLU and MALDEF brought lawsuits against the city shortly after the measure passed; the housing provision didn’t go into effect until April of this year, after the appeals court upheld it.