Dorchester Times: News Tip: Federal Immigration Enforcement Coming To Saline County

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

News Tip: Federal Immigration Enforcement Coming To Saline County

Following the publication of our July 13 editorial, the Times has received two anonymous e-mail tips claiming federal authorities are planning an "immigration enforcement action" in Saline County in coming weeks.

The Times was unable to verify the veracity of the e-mail tips. However, such action would not be unprecedented.

Last year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided several places of business across the country. In May 2008, at an Iowa meat processing plant, ICE agents arrested 390 people on immigration charges. The raid was aimed at seeking evidence of identity theft, stolen Social Security numbers and people in the country illegally. Most of the illegal workers were from Mexico and Guatemala.

Then, two weeks ago, ICE issued "notices of inspection" to 652 business across the country. ICE’s announcement of this action stated: "This new initiative illustrates ICE's increased focus on holding employers accountable for their hiring practices and efforts to ensure a legal workforce."

The inspection notices alert business owners that ICE will be inspecting their hiring records to determine whether they are complying with employment eligibility and verification laws, as well as regulations. The 652 businesses presented with notices were selected as a result of investigations. The names and locations of the businesses were not released.

DEVELOPING...

7 comments:

AnonymousJuly 15, 2009 at 10:39 AM
Interesting comment on the job world.

Sometimes we need these people to work because half of the people in this area are too lazy to work

it would be interesting to see how many people in saline county are on disability or govt benefits because they cant work.
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90s gradJuly 17, 2009 at 10:16 AM
Pat Buchanan on Obama's socialist America ...

"Coming to America to feast on this cornucopia of freebies is the world. One million to 2 million immigrants, legal and illegal, arrive every year. They come with fewer skills and less education than Americans, and consume more tax dollars than they contribute by three to one.

"Wise Latina women have more babies north of the border than they do in Mexico and twice as many here as American women.

As almost all immigrants are now Third World people of color, they qualify for ethnic preferences in hiring and promotions and admissions to college over the children of Americans."
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Ohoyo PracharJuly 17, 2009 at 2:33 PM
Be open-minded…sometimes you can learn from a wise Latina woman.

Signed,

“A wise Czech/Choctaw woman”
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AnonymousJuly 18, 2009 at 10:06 PM
Immigration such a a difficult subject. It was interesting that one reader commented about legal immigrants. We are all forgetting that all of our relatives were immigrants who hopefully were legal. Most were not well educated but came to America to get that chance and for their children(your grandparents or great grandparents. This is what America is all about people from all backgrounds have made us what we are today. I am all for immigration if it is legal. Glad my ancestors came here and gave me the chance to have a great life in a great country. People who come here legally I am sure want the same for their families.
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La RazaAugust 4, 2009 at 6:13 AM
Check this out: After early pledges by President Obama that he would moderate the Bush administration’s tough policy on immigration enforcement, his administration is pursuing an aggressive strategy for an illegal-immigration crackdown that relies significantly on programs started by his predecessor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/us/politics/04immig.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1249384100-P7w5QqmNaWpDf0y9oro1aQ
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AnonymousAugust 24, 2009 at 11:06 PM
still waiting for this to take place
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AnonymousAugust 25, 2009 at 12:11 AM
me too. praying every night i drive through crete after 9 p.m.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."