OK, so, a federal judge has thrown out most of a Nebraska city’s ordinance that hoped to prevent hiring or renting to illegal immigrants, Associated Press reports.

A lawsuit was brought by the ACLU and a Hispanic organization, against the voter-approved 2010 ordinance that would have required employers to check whether a person is permitted to work in the U.S.

And anyone seeking to rent property would have had to apply for a $5 city permit, the story notes.

I’m not sure how the rental permit would weed out illegal immigrants, but nevertheless, it would seem like employers should be required to find out if the people they’re hiring are allowed to work here. Like they should make sure the applicant isn’t a wanted felon, international terrorist or dangerous escaped ax murderer, employers should be required to make sure applicants are operating within the law of the land, or risk being outside the law themselves.

That’s why we have laws, isn’t it? Or am I missing something?

Anyway, these groups challenged the law and this U.S. District Court Judge essentially gutted it.

OK, so, here’s the thing.

It sounds like this judge ruled that employers can’t check to see if an applicant or employee is permitted to work in the U.S.
“Permitted to work in the U.S.” implies to me that under certain circumstances, some people are not legally permitted to work in the U.S.

Someone must at one time have thought it was important for people working here to meet certain criteria. Why do we bother having laws dictating who can or can’t work here or come here or be here if we’re going to forbid people to make sure those laws are being followed?

Non-citizens are allowed to work here if they have a green card/work visa or student visa, which have been issued to people since about 1946, according to historical websites. So, since the end of World War II, our leadership has felt the need to not let just anyone who finds his or her way here to work here. This might have been an effort to keep Americans working, who knows?

So, the people who meet this legal criteria, which is spelled out on the federal government website, can get issued a card proving as much.

Otherwise, they’re not allowed to work here. They may be visitors or whatever, and as such, perfectly welcome. Or, they may be here illegally, in which, case, as far as I’m concerned, they’re really not as welcome.

How can we pretend to be a nation of laws when our judges won’t let people follow the laws we have? I must be missing something, because it seems kind of through-the-looking-glass weird to me.

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