Standing With Immigrants In Nebraska

Despite a historically conservative identity, a pro-immigrant political culture in Nebraska is growing.

By Julie Greene | Dissent Magazine

"Donald Trump won the presidency, in part, by exploiting xenophobic anxieties and portraying immigrants and refugees as “bad dudes”: rapists, drug dealers, and terrorists. Since taking office his rhetoric and policies have sought to punish them—by increasing the number of agents in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (or ICE) and the Border Patrol, expanding the number of raids on the undocumented, and trying to speed up deportations of detainees. The result, in communities where immigrants and their children live, has been an intense rise in alarm and anxiety. People wonder what will happen to children if their parents are picked up, and any interaction with nativists is fraught with potential for disaster."

Read the complete article in Dissent Magazine.

Photo: State senators on the floor of the legislature giving a standing ovation to DACA youth after a 2016 vote granting them the right to obtain professional licenses (Nebraska Appleseed via Dissent Magazine)