Group presents recommendations to council

A much-anticipated report from the Mayor’s Task Force on Immigration was presented to members of the Fremont City Council at their regular meeting Wednesday night.

Bill Ekeler, who co-chaired the task force with Fremont Mayor “Skip” Edwards, presented the

41-page document during the council’s study session just before the council meeting began.

The task force presented these

six recommendations:

n The city should provide educational opportunities for all Fremont employers to obtain immigration compliance within their workplace.

n The city should adopt a policy statement that would say that the city “supports and encourages legal immigration and those citizens’ contributions to the community.”

n City officials should press Gov. Dave Heineman and Attorney General Jon Bruning to hold a special summit on Immigration Customs Enforcement with Fremont hosting to establish the same lines of communication for communities across the state that Fremont has developed because of recent meetings with ICE officials.

n The city should provide literature about the accessible social services and educational opportunities within the community for citizens and legal residents.

n Fremont Public Schools should require cultural awareness class to inform students of the issues that Fremont faces related to immigration.

n The city should continue to pressure and encourage state and federal officials to improve enforcement of immigration laws.

Ekeler said the document came about because of the “thousands of hours” spent by the 29 members of the task force.

“It’s positive to have this dialogue that went on,” Ekeler said to council members. “It’s confrontational but that’s how things get done. We did not try to solve the issue. We can’t. The work is not done, but the framework is there.”

The Mayor’s Task Force on Immigration was developed this summer when Edwards broke a tie

on a split council vote to kill an ordinance that would have targeted illegal immigrants by prohibiting employers from hiring them, prohibiting landlords from

renting to them and prohibiting any resident from harboring

them.

The issue came to light in the spring when council member Bob Warner said he received calls from residents complaining about illegal immigrants. The proposed ordinance put Fremont in the national spotlight.

“There are many sides to many issues,” Ekeler continued. “I think we have some very good recommendations (in the report). Hopefully, with the black eye Fremont received with this we can become the leader on this issue. Now it’s time to put the rubber on the road and see what can happen.”

Ekeler said it’s obvious that this issue has created heated debates throughout the community with public comments placed on the Fremont Tribune Web site adjacent to articles covering the proposed ordinance.

From the comments left on the Tribune Web site the past few months, “we know that there are a lot of opinions out there.”

“Everybody knows everything about this issue but nobody knows much of anything on this issue,” he said. “That’s obvious from those comments.”