The city of Fremont ought to drop its attempt to take immigration enforcement into its own hands.

    By law and by any practical standard, that task is best left to the federal government.

Trying to take over on the local level will drive an emotionally divisive wedge into the community, generate red tape and other problems for local businesses, quite possibly propel city government into costly legal battles and lead to unneeded law enforcement costs.

Fremont City Council member Bob Warner said his proposed ordinance is a response to the federal government’s failure to enforce its own immigration law. “Our elected officials in Washington either have no idea what’s going on in the country with illegals or they just don’t care,” Warner said in a column published in the Fremont Tribune. “They are too busy on the campaign trail wooing voters and not caring what they promise to get the votes.”

The proposed law would require all renters to get an occupation license and would make it illegal to rent an apartment to an illegal immigrant. It also would make it illegal to hire illegal immigrants.

A clear indication that the Fremont city government is veering into rocky legal terrain came this past week from Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.

Certainly no defender of illegal immigration, Bruning said that he stands by a 1997 opinion by then-Attorney General Don Stenberg that federal law pre-empts any state or local attempts to fine or penalize businesses that hire illegal immigrants.

Fremont’s own city attorney, Dean Skokan, has warned the council that passage of the ordinance would probably mean the city would have to defend itself in a lawsuit.

Fremont landlord Steve Dahl has told the council that it would create problems for his business and noted that the ordinance targets Hispanics. Norm Pflanz of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest said the proposal will fuel discrimination against people who look or sound foreign.

There’s little doubt that Warner has been encouraged by hot-blooded opponents of illegal immigration. Warner has become a minor media celebrity, granting interviews to out-of-state media. Supporters booed and jeered opponents at a council meeting.

This energy is misdirected. If the Fremont City Council doesn’t like the way the federal government is enforcing immigration law, then it should put pressure on Congress and the administration.

Trying to handle the job at the local level will merely create more problems.