Arizona style anti-immigration measures are not limited to just Arizona. In the hotbed of undocumented immigration, Fremont, Nebraska, citizens voted to approve their own anti-immigrant regulations that require local landlords and businesses to use the federal e-verify system before hiring/renting. But now the city has been sued and the ordinance enjoined, but the city must continue to pay to defend their wedge politics to the tune of around A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR. So what does a good Republican City Council do? They raise property taxes to pay the Republican attorney who wrote the law (and who it just happens is running for state attorney general) to defend the law suits. Full irony after the jump.
Yes, the GOP will obstruct any extension of unemployment benefits, but they do all they can to guarantee full employment for GOP lawyers. GOP Attorney Kris Kobach is doing quite well for himself copying and pasting from repetive briefing for several cities he represents who followed his advise and adopted anti-immigration measures. This reminds me of the HMO plan contracts where the doctor group can make MORE MONEY by doing FEWER LAB TESTS, etc. Give bad advise and get more attorneys fees. The rub comes when there is a conflict between the GOP mantras of 1) no new taxes, and 2) blame the immigrants (muslims, gays, fill in the blank) for America's troubles. Take a guess which policy wins out? The City of Freemont Nebraska is confronted with the following rocks and hard places: Under Nebraska law the City cannot run any deficit, the costs of defense are estimated between $800 K and $1.2 Million A YEAR because of those pesky federal constitutional terms that tell states and cities not to illegally migrate into federal areas of the law. But the good citizens have spoken by approving the ordinance. So the property tax rate is going up around $116 per year for the average $200,000 home in the City. To sum up, they can't enforce the ordinance because a federal judge has enjoined the odinance's operation, but the litigation goes on and yeah, it's "full employment" for Republican attorneys on the taxpayer's dime. Sooooo, sweet.