The town that can’t live without migrants, but isn't sure it wants to live with them
Fremont, Nebraska, has three massive meat-processing plants that need workers. It also requires anyone renting a home to sign a declaration that they’re in the U.S. legally.
Big-city mayors may be complaining about the economic impact of an influx of migrants, but the residents of a small city near Omaha can’t decide how they feel.
Fremont, Nebraska, population 27,000, has three massive meat-processing plants. As young locals leave in search of better jobs, Central American migrants have been taking their places in the slaughterhouses, especially after Costco opened a huge rotisserie chicken facility in 2019.
“We need these people,” said Mark Jensen, president of the city council. “We need this work done. This is what feeds the nation and the world.”
But instead of a welcome mat, for more than a decade Fremont has had a controversial law on the books that tries to bar undocumented migrants from living within city limits. In 2010, residents voted 57% to 43% to require that all people renting property in Fremont must first sign a declaration that they are legally present in the U.S.
My family used to export cherries from WA state cherries into China. We have met farmers who literally hate Mexicans but hire them each season. One of his many stupid reasons was because they are taking jobs away from the locals. When I asked him point blank why doesn't he just hire non-mexicans he said no locals want to work picking cherries regardless how much he pays.
I said to him if there is no demand for these jobs, who are the people that are taking the jobs from? His answer was... "Um... I guess I never looked at it that way."
I also added that these migrant works are quite literally keeping food on your table. Without them he would have to drop the cherries each year(drop means they claim insurance and just let the fruit rot). He didn't say anything after this. I think I struct a nerve.
I don't think I believe your story simply because I have yet to encounter a conservative who would respond to direct questioning like that. I think if this really happened he would have called you a commie and walked away. I would love to be wrong about that though.
I'm not here to convince you.
I will add that these farmers have been working with us for years and we are not strangers. So there are years of relationship prior to me talking about politics with him.
Modern farmers tend to be fairly well educated. How much exposure they have to a non GOP narrative on the other hand...
They'd have to actively search out dem and left views. Their church is probably GOP, their neighbors are probably GOP, their radio is definitely GOP, their local news networks are GOP.
The GOP has a stranglehold on rural areas for a reason and it isn't by making things better for their constituents. It is by near perfect control over the information they get most conveniently. People don't tend to search out the opposing view and if they do they're already biased towards the one they heard first.
A lot of them fail to take the next step in logic. Like “I don’t trust the mainstream media.” Ask them who they get their news from. Then ask them, if that was the main news source for everyone, wouldn’t that make them the mainstream media?
I'm not a conservative, and I actually like some of the things they'd call mainstream like AP, NYTimes, The Atlantic, but even I don't follow that logic... It would make them the mainstream, but they're not the main news source for everyone, so ... they're not the mainstream media.