President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations is provoking worry in Nebraska’s Latino community and uncertainty in law enforcement.
It was a familiar refrain from Donald Trump on the campaign trail, that on Day One as president that he “will launch the largest deportation program in American history.”
Many people in Nebraska’s Latino and Hispanic communities are worried, said Maria Arriaga, executive director of the state’s Commission on Latino-Americans.
“We obviously hear a lot of concerns, not just from people, for regular people, for people that might be undocumented, but also concerns from organizations, from community leaders, from different entities,” Arriaga said. "They are just worried about the consequences of the implementation of these policies." 21SECS
About a quarter million Nebraskans, or one in eight of the state’s population of two million, identify as Hispanic, according to an estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Most are U.S. citizens, with nearly half born in the country, according to a study from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Estimates of the number of undocumented immigrants in the state – from all countries – are in the range of about 40,000 people.
But Arriaga said concern about what could happen to them affects many more, since Latino families are mixed status families.
"So you can have people they (are) citizens, you have legal permanent residents, you have persons with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status), you have refugees, you have asylum seekers, or you have undocumented people. So it's a mix of everything,” she said.
Dylan Severino of ACLU Nebraska said the organization has been planning for the second Trump presidency.
During Trump’s first presidency, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in 2018 raided food processing plants and farms around the northern Nebraska community of O’Neill, arresting 133 people for immigration law violations, and separating children from their parents.
*Additionally, Sioux City received the first snow of the upcoming winter season over the long Thanksgiving holiday just completed, plus some more spit out of the sky on Monday morning.
There were more than 20 wrecks reported by authorities in Sioux City related to the snow that first fell on Saturday, November 30.
In preparation for winter weather involving snow, people are reminded there is information on the City of Sioux City website, at sioux-city.org/snow , for residents to reference relating to parking, snow removal, ticketing, and towing.
As in past years in Sioux City and many other Siouxland towns, parking restrictions will be put in place to aid the speed of snow removal.
*In South Dakota, it seems likely that a year of austerity actions could be coming out of the Legislature.
Gov. Kristi Noem in a 1 p.m. Tuesday address will outline how she will fund the state government, while balancing one high-priced prison addition, at a time when revenues are coming in lower than projected.
There's also growing pressure for property tax relief.
The dwindling revenues are a picture that state lawmakers haven’t heard in a few years. Some are expecting Gov. Noem to deliver the most frugal budget of her administration.
Jeff Mehlhaff, the chief fiscal analyst for the Legislative Research Council., said revenues could ultimately drop by 2 percent, or $78 million less than a year ago.
Sioux Falls Republican Representative Tony Venhuizen is vice-chair of House Appropriations, and he expects Noem’s ideas for new spending will be very limited.
The guaranteed maximum price for a planned new men’s state prison is $825 million, higher than previous estimates. There is about $200 million left for legislators to find to fully complete that prison funding.
*Additionally, Governor Jim Pillen's legislative priorities for 2025 include a familiar set of issues for Nebraska lawmakers.
In a release on Sunday, Pillen said he would prioritize setting guidelines for transgender participation in sports and rework the way schools are funded to reduce property taxes. He also aims to ban the sale of lab-grown meat and change the state's electoral vote allocation back to winner-take-all.
"This is by no means an all-encompassing list, but these items are certainly top of mind as we reflect on our past achievements and acknowledge there is still much to be accomplished," he said.
Pillen will have a slim Republican supermajority to work with to accomplish his agenda.
The Nebraska Legislature requires a two-thirds majority vote to override a filibuster to end debate, and registered Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Unicameral have exactly that. But if just one Republican defects, legislation would require the support of a Democrat or independent in order to avoid being indefinitely postponed.
The 109th Nebraska Legislature will convene on January 8, 2025.
