Dorchester Times: EDITORIAL: Time For Nebraska To Adopt Arizona's Immigration Law

Friday, April 30, 2010

EDITORIAL: Time For Nebraska To Adopt Arizona's Immigration Law

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard about the firestorm sparked by Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law. The passing and signing of the bill into law demonstrate that Arizona lawmakers and its governor have prioritized the safety and security of its citizens above all other considerations.

It is now time for Nebraska lawmakers to do the same.

The Arizona law is rather straight forward. It does the following three things:

Requires officials and agencies of the state and political subdivisions to fully comply with and assist in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Gives county attorneys subpoena power to investigate certain employers.

Establishes crimes involving trespassing by illegal aliens, stopping to hire or solicit work under specified circumstances, and transporting, harboring or concealing unlawful aliens.

Nearly two-thirds of voters in Arizona endorse the new law, according to a well-respected poll published this week. That level of support, from a state that is nearly 35% Hispanic, is proof positive that illegal immigration is a priority in the voters' minds.

It appears that state lawmakers in Texas, Maryland and other states will introduce a bill that mirrors the new Arizona law. Such a move makes sense. If the federal government won't protect its citizens and safeguard our borders, let the states do the job that federal politicians won't do.

It is our hope that several Nebraska state senators will also follow Arizona's lead and introduce similar legislation in the next session. And it needs to happen soon -- if not for the sake of national security and border sovereignty, then at least to address the fact that 8 million U.S. jobs today are held by illegal aliens, at a time of 10% national unemployment.

The time has come to fix the immigration mess.

10 comments:

AnonymousApril 30, 2010 at 8:58 AM
This is a joke, right?
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousApril 30, 2010 at 9:04 AM
Obviously, in the interests of being fair and unbiased you will accept and publish editorials that represent a counter view, right?
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousApril 30, 2010 at 9:17 AM
I live in Maryland; the bill will not pass.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousApril 30, 2010 at 9:33 AM
Joke? I am 100% behind an immigration law. Let's do it as soon as possible. I think the majority of Nebraskans will agree with it.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousApril 30, 2010 at 9:48 AM
Is this a joke? It's racist...and its stupid. The federal government is responsible for this nonsense for their failure to act on this issue. If they don't do something, you will have many of these radical laws.
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousApril 30, 2010 at 12:50 PM
I agree, this is racist, unconstitutional (only the fed gov't can regulate immigration), and it's going to cost the taxpayers of Arizona millions of dollars in litigation expenses. Just because the majority of Nebraskans would support this doesn't mean it's a good idea or a something lawful. If someone had taken a poll in the South in 1850 on the issue of slavery, what would have been the result?
ReplyDelete
Replies
Village DwellerApril 30, 2010 at 3:38 PM
Readers:

Ironically, several comments have been left in opposition to our editorial, all at roughly the same time of day.

As a reminder, the Times will not publish reader comments if we suspect that a particular reader is leaving multiple comments at once addressing the same topic.

Say your piece, then move on.

Thank you.
ReplyDelete
Replies
MSApril 30, 2010 at 4:32 PM
I am writing Senator Russ Karpisek and asking him to introduce a bill like arizona's. I urge all of you to do the same.
ReplyDelete
Replies
BobApril 30, 2010 at 10:59 PM
Six Lexington residents were arrested Thursday in a drug sting that took two years of undercover investigation.

The following individuals were arrested for the distribution of controlled substances and incarcerated in the Dawson County Jail.

Miguel Astorga-Garcia, 20, Swawn Hewitt, 42 Rosendo Valenzuela, 22, Juan Figueroa, 19, Thelma Flores, 35, Cody A. Wilbourn, 18.

The following individuals were arrested for immigration violations.

Ignacio Herrera-Velasquez, 51, Beder Godinez-Orozco, 30.
ReplyDelete
Replies
90s gradApril 30, 2010 at 11:52 PM
It gets worse, Bob...

Associated Press

PHOENIX - After a frantic hour-long desert search, authorities found a deputy wounded in a shootout Friday with suspected illegal immigrants apparently hauling bales of marijuana along a major smuggling corridor in southern Arizona.

The deputy was found after being shot with an AK-47 on Friday afternoon, Pinal County sheriff's Lt. Tamatha Villar said. He was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Casa Grande, about 40 miles south of Phoenix.

Villar said the deputy was doing smuggling interdiction work and found bales of marijuana in the desert. He then encountered five suspected illegal immigrants, two armed with rifles, and was shot.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Village Dweller checks all reader comments to determine if they are appropriate for print.

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."