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All Things N ebraska
No matter your opinion of immigrants, I think we can agree on one thing – having a federal detention center in Nebraska is not a good look for our state.
The opening of the “Cornhusker Clink” illustrates that Nebraskais in full-throated agreement with the roundup and deportation of those who cameto our country in search of a better life but in violation of immigration rules.
There’s growing opposition to the sometimes brutal roundups organizedby mask-wearing agents of the Trump Administration. According to the latest Pew Research Center polling, 53% of those polled believe Trump is “doing too much” to enforce immigration rules. That’s quite an increase from March when polling showed only 44% felt the raids were excessive. Immigrants play an important role in our state and in our communities. They fill tough jobs that not everyone wants to fill in a state that has struggled with labor shortages. We’re talking jobs like roofer, road construction and concrete worker, housekeeper, cook and (maybe most important) meat packer.
Overall, about 7.7% of Nebraska residents are foreign born (about fourtimes the number in 1990), with immigrants making up 9.4% of the state’s workforce, according to the American Immigrant Council.
That 9.4% figure is about double the national figure. But I doubt it’s that high now. I know buddies who’ve had co-workers suddenly “self-deport” and have watched as their roofing crew stopped coming to work out of fear of being detained.
Like I’ve said before, the vast, vast majority of immigrants are law-abiding and just want what our ancestors wanted – a safe place to raise a family and the opportunity to work and get ahead.
Right now, there isn’t an easy pathway to citizenship for such people, and there’s questions about whether we’re screening out criminals.
The Republicans, who now control the government, have a chanceto fix that, and provide a process that allows those who want to work and play by the rules to become citizens. Ronald Reagan did that when he was president,why can’t that happen now, thus keeping people in jobs and in communities in our state?
But our national policy appears to be “round ‘em up and deport.” We have also eliminated some formerly legal pathways for immigration, such as those that welcomed Afghans – including many who helped the U.S. soldiers during the war there – and granted them temporary asylum.
We were told that this roundup of immigrants was to go after the “worst of the worst,” like rapists and murderers. But a recent look by the libertarian Cato Institute found that 73% of those booked into ICE custody had no criminal convictions, and only 8% had violent criminal records.
It’s estimated that undocumented immigrants paid an estimated $96.7 billion in taxes during 2022, including more than $32 billion in federal taxes for Social Security and Medicare – programs for which they are ineligible.That’s according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
So immigrants are a key cog in Nebraska’s economy.They’ve also been a major driver in population growth in our state, where the population passed the 2 million mark last year.
But instead of welcoming and encouraging such immigrantion, ourstate has joined an unpopular national effort to deport them by convertinga prison work camp near McCook into a federal detention facility that now holds 100-150 immigrants awaiting deportation hearings.
A handful of state senators got a look at the Cornhusker Clinkrecently, and came away saying it appeared clean and orderly. But now Nebraska has the notoriety of being the home of such a facility.
You gotta think there are smarter – and less expensive – solutions than spending billions to hire squads of new ICE agents,establish more detention camps and deport migrants.
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.
