The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU Nebraska filed a federal lawsuit on July 21 in U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska on behalf of landlords, tenants and employers in Fremont, Nebraska challenging a discriminatory law that requires prospective renters to provide the Fremont Police Department with information about their citizenship or immigration status prior to renting any home. The law also requires employers to check the status of would-be hires using E-Verify, a flawed federal electronic verification program that Congress has repeatedly declined to make mandatory.
The Fremont ordinance, which passed on June 21 is scheduled to go into effect on July 29. The ACLU's lawsuit charges that Fremont's law is at odds with the clear constitutional mandate imposing a uniform federal immigration enforcement system and has a discriminatory effect on those who look or sound "foreign."