A Nebraska city that banned non-US citizens from renting property has seen an influx of migrants moving to fill jobs at meatpacking plants.
Fremont, a small town of 27,000, is home to several meatpacking plants, including Costco’s chicken plant and Wholestone Farms pork plant.
Locals have said that the town’s residents are leaving to work elsewhere and that migrants have come to take over vacant jobs at slaughterhouses. NBC News. That’s despite a decade-old law that prohibits anyone who is not a citizen from living in the area.
The city, once almost entirely white, now has a Latino population of 16 percent in 2022, according to U.S. census data.
‘We need these people. We need this work. This is what fuels the nation and the world,” said City Council President Mark Jensen.
“These are very physical jobs, and a lot of it is hard work. And it’s not something that many people can do.”
Fremont, a small town of 27,000, is home to several meatpacking plants, including Costco’s chicken plant (pictured) and Wholestone Farms pork plant. The city had had a ban for a decade that prohibited non-citizens from renting property
Despite the ban, the city has seen an influx of migrants, with a local Guatemalan church growing from three to 200 members in seven years.
Jensen told NBC News that he has worked in the meatpacking industry for 40 years and that the jobs have become less attractive to native Americans.
The Guatemalan Consulate in Omaha reportedly said there are at least 2,020 Guatemalans in Fremont and that the actual figure could be 45 percent higher.
Community organizer Antonio Lopez said the school system has added 600 people over the past four years who do not speak English as a first language. More than 40 percent of Guatemalan migrants speak an indigenous language called K’iche’.
Maria and Vicente Hernandez, pastors at a local Guatemalan church, told NBC News that their congregation grew from three to 200 people in seven years.
“With Spanish-speaking migrants, even though it’s hard, even though it’s tough, they persevere,” Vicente said.
Jessica Kolterman, director of administration at the Costco plant, Lincoln Premium Poultry, shared Fremont Grandstand they offer English language classes for their employees. The factory, which opened in 2019, has an estimated 1,200 employees.
“If you come into this team and want to work hard and grow, the opportunity is there for you,” Kolterman said.
In May, Wholestone Farms announced that its pork processing plant in Fremont will add a second shift and double capacity to 5.6 million hogs, creating 800 to 1,000 jobs, the newspaper reported. Omaha World Herald.
However, as the city looks to migrants to fill the meatpacking jobs, a 2010 law bans noncitizens from renting real estate in Fremont.
The Guatemalan Consulate in Omaha reportedly said there are at least 2,020 Guatemalans in Fremont and that the real figure, despite the ban, could be 45 percent higher.
Freemont requires new renters and people moving to a new address to fill out a form declaring they are legal residents and obtain a $5 permit to move. However, there is no language in the law requiring tenants to prove that they are citizens; they only have to fill out a form stating whether they are citizens.
The city clerk’s office told NBC News it receives three to five reports a day from migrants and other applicants
The law, known as Ordinance 5165, requires new renters and people moving to a new address to fill out a form declaring they are legal residents of the country and obtain a $5 permit to move, reported KETV.
The city clerk’s office told NBC News it receives three to five reports a day from migrants and other applicants.
In 2014, a federal court ruled that the ordinance was legal, and the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal. However, there is no language in the law requiring tenants to prove that they are citizens; they just need to fill out a form indicating whether they are citizens.
The city paid Kobach Law an annual retainer of $10,000 in case of lawsuits challenging the law. Kobach Law, the private practice of current Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, terminated its contract with Fremont in 2023.
“The residents of the city asked the City Council to do something because it was pretty clear that we had just become a haven for illegals,” said City Councilman Paul Von Behren.
“The pressure alone to bring in numbers has resulted in a significant burden on taxpayers.”
Costco’s state-of-the-art chicken processing plant (pictured) is one of three major plants in the city. Locals say factory jobs are less attractive to Americans, leaving migrants to fill the work
Jessica Kolterman, director of administration at the Costco plant, Lincoln Premium Poultry, said they offer English language classes to their employees
The problems facing Freemont, a factory where meatpacking plants are essential to the local economy but often employ migrant workers, are not new to the Midwest. Migrant factory workers have become a hot topic in many conservative parts of the Midwest, as voters wanted tough immigration controls but also didn’t want to lose the factories.
DailyMail.com revealed that Bill Flaig, CEO and co-founder of the $79 million American Conservative Values Fund, has been divested from Tyson amid allegations that the company is firing American workers and hiring asylum seekers.
Angry shoppers are boycotting Tyson Foods products as the $53 million meat company closes plants in Iowa and elsewhere and hires thousands of asylum seekers at job fairs in New York.
Campaigners are urging consumers to stop buying Tyson products amid a wave of poultry and meatpacking plant closures in Iowa, Virginia, Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri.
They point to Tyson’s efforts to hire thousands of asylum seekers in New York, offering $16.50 an hour wages and free immigration lawyers, and accuse the company of dumping U.S.-born workers for cheaper migrant labor.
The meat and poultry giant has denied accusations that it is firing Americans because of migrants.
In a statement, the company said: ‘There has been a lot of misinformation about our company in the media in recent days and we feel compelled to set the record straight.
“Any insinuation that we would cut American jobs to hire guest workers is completely false.”