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On vacation in Colorado last week, I ran into a few Husker ex-pats.
All commented on how great the summer weather was in the mountains. No corn sweat! No 100 degree days!
Not one former Husker mentioned high property taxes – which blamed by several politicians as the reason people move from the state.
But I digress. We probably need to discuss the latest move to vilify and punish hard-working immigrants in our own backyard. We’re talking about the “Cornhusker Clink,” the takeover of a state prison camp in McCook by the federal government, a part of the Trump Administration’s pledge to detain and deport immigrants deemed “the worst of the worst.” Gov. Jim Pillen said that transferring186 Nebraska inmates to other, seriously overcrowded state prisons to make way for federal detainees is the state’s way to support Trump’s offensive on immigrants.
I’m all for removing killers and rapists, but too often, this crackdown has nabbed immigrants doing jobs homegrown Americans won’t do, like slaughtering hogs and cattle, roofing and street construction, and landscaping work.
These days, I tend to pay attention to who’s working where. At a tourist tavern in Grand Lake, all the waiters and kitchen help were from Romania. At a tree farm near Yutan, those working in the hot sun all appeared Hispanic. At a huge dairy farm north of Denver, six employees – all Hispanic – died from toxic gases accidentally released from a manure pit.
These are all people pursuing what I thought was the “American Dream” – work hard, pay your taxes, support your family, get ahead. What is the benefit of tossing them into the Cornhusker Clink?
I’m curious what the reaction in Nebraska might be if one of our beef processing plants was raided and shut down? Cattle producers, who are seeing record prices right now, would scream.
If immigrants in these plants were deported, would American citizens line up to fill those jobs?
We all know the answer to that.
Our last president, Joe Biden, attempted to resolve the immigration dilemma – allowing immigrants, already living in the country and already working for companies that need workers, to remain working and living here.
Seemed like a smart idea and it reportedly had the bipartisan support to pass until then-candidate Trump called on his buddies in Congress to scuttle the bill for political purposes.
The ball’s now in Trump’s court to resolve the immigration dilemma. But instead of offering a solution, our current administration’s answer is to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to round up immigrants, and build several concentration camp-like compounds like the Cornhusker Clink and its predecessor in Florida, Alligator Alcatraz.
Trump always trumpets that he’s going to make America “great again.” But I gotta wonder if the red hats should display “MTGA” (Make Trump Great Again) after reading an article estimating that his family’s wealth has more than doubled, by $3.4 billion, since the last election thanks to corporate deals, sales of merchandise and crypto coins, and gifts like that pricey plane from Qatar.
Former President Ronald Reagan also wanted to make American “great again.”
He actually did it when it concerned immigrants, pushing through a bill that allowed those who were working and living in the U.S. a pathway to citizenship.
Nearly 3 million immigrants got permanent residency under the bipartisan bill passed during the Reagan Administration.
The Cornhusker Clink isn’t getting great reviews, and polls show that Americans think ICE is being too aggressive.
McCook residents interviewed by Andrew Wegley of the Lincoln Journal-Star worried that hardened criminals will be housed in their vicinity. There were protests when Pillen came to McCook to announce his deal, and later at the Governor’s Residence in Lincoln.
Even the normally quiet and conservative Catholic bishop of Lincoln, the Rev. James Conley called on officials to use the McCook facility only for those who endanger public safety, not for hard-working immigrants simply seeking a better life in America.
That’s something my family, and many others, sought as well when they came to the U.S.
Paul Hammel has covered the Nebraska state government and the state for decades. Prior to his retirement, he was senior contributor with the Nebraska Examiner. He was previously with the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha Sun. A native of Ralston, Nebraska, he loves traveling and writing about the state.
