Janssen involved in illegal immigration policy since his political start

StoryDiscussionImage (3)By JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Saturday, March 13, 2010 12:20 am | (23) Comments

FREMONT -- Sen. Charlie Janssen came to the Legislature in 2009 from Fremont in the wake of small-town wrangling -- big headline-grabbing wrangling -- over illegal immigration.

Janssen was a member of the Fremont City Council when it tried and failed to pass an ordinance in July 2008 that would have prohibited renting to or hiring illegal immigrants. Janssen voted for the ordinance, which failed on a 5-4 vote.

The issue has dragged on in the town -- giving Fremont a somewhat soiled reputation -- through a petition drive to force a vote of the people on the ordinance, through district court and now the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Janssen was elected to the City Council in November 2006 and seven months later announced he would run for the Legislature, to replace his uncle Ray Janssen representing District 15. He won the legislative race and took office in January '09.

In two sessions, he has introduced 19 bills. Two have passed.

His attempt this session to repeal Nebraska's motorcycle helmet law -- in his view a personal freedom issue -- died after a filibuster and a failed attempt to invoke cloture.

He has tried twice to repeal the state's Dream Act, which provides for in-state college tuition for undocumented students. Last year he withdrew from an attempt to amend it to another bill on the floor after some pressure, and then asked for an interim study on the issue. That was given a low priority by the Education Committee, he said, and never done.

This year, he introduced the repeal proposal as a bill (LB1001). It has failed to get out of committee.

Janssen says he has been called a racist for his stands against illegal immigration.

"I'm certainly not," he says.

He is fighting this fight, he says, because offering in-state tuition and prenatal care to mothers who are illegal immigrants are expansions of government he opposes.

"We can't be all things to all people."

Those benefits, he says, entice people to stay in Nebraska illegally.

People coming to this country should have a fair chance at a life, Janssen says, but there's a legal process for that. The problem of illegal immigration isn't solved when the state provides services to those who skipped the process, he says.

Janssen views himself as an independent Republican, although he admits some see him as an ultra conservative. He grew up in a family of Democrats.

He does not align himself with or share the values of groups and individuals who are hateful toward Hispanics in Nebraska, he says.

"These people hurt the message," he said.

Kansas attorney Kris Kobach, who has filed a lawsuit in Jefferson County against in-state tuition for children of illegal immigrants, came to the Capitol in early February to testify on Janssen's bill.

Some supporters of in-state tuition for undocumented students say Kobach, as senior counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, is a representative of a hate group.

Janssen disagrees with that characterization.

The ACLU, he says, tries to push racism into the issue by labeling immigration reform groups as hate groups.

"The ACLU just shouts racism every time someone proposes a solution. I would ask the ACLU: Where is their solution?"

***

Gary Bolton served with Janssen on the Fremont City Council. The senator, he said, is representing Fremont well in the Legislature on issues important to the area -- in particular, highways and roads projects, such as the widening of Nebraska 30 west and U.S. 77 to Wahoo.

"Charlie has been very good watching out for this area. He's moved things along," Bolton said.

On the illegal immigration issue that came before the council, Bolton voted on the opposite side of Janssen. But his no vote was because part of the ordinance interfered with federal housing laws. He wanted a cleaner one related to prohibition of hiring illegal immigrants, he said.

Bolton said Janssen's stand against in-state tuition for undocumented students and giving prenatal care to illegal immigrants coincides with the views of a "sizable portion" of his constituents.

They would like to see state laws that prohibit hiring illegal immigrants for all businesses, not just those working for or contracting with state government, he said.

And a smaller group would just like to control the number of minorities in the state, he said, to go back to a time when their cities were less diverse.

***

Janssen, 39, grew up in Nickerson, near Fremont, and graduated from Hooper's Logan View High School, Class of '89. Forty-eight were in his senior class, 24 of them boys.

Half of the boys joined the military, he said. He and six other classmates joined the Navy, the popular movie "Top Gun" with Tom Cruise, fresh in their minds.

"It was one of the most mature decisions I ever made," he said. "I was not ready to go to college."

After boot camp -- "almost torture, a mental beating, he said -- he became a radar man and later a rescue swimmer.

While stationed in Jacksonville, Fla., Janssen survived a head-on crash in a Ford Festiva hatchback with three other sailors hit by a drunk driver. He was out six weeks before returning to duty. Two others in the car were discharged because of their injuries.

A year after he joined, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. A few months later Janssen found himself in the Persian Gulf on the USS McInerney, a guided missile frigate running interference through mine fields and fiery oil platforms for the battleship USS Wisconsin.

There were a lot of unknowns moving through that water, filled with heavy smoke and fire, he said. Situations could get serious, really fast.

Janssen served on the McInerney six months and left active duty after two tours in the Persian Gulf.

***

After returning to Nebraska, Janssen enrolled at Wayne State College, graduating four years later with a bachelor's degree in broadcast communications.

He started working his way up the career ladder in 1997 with a summer internship at KTIV in Sioux City, followed by a sports editor job at the Wahoo newspaper, making $8.75 an hour. The next year, he became sports information director at Dana College, at $21,000 a year, then admissions representative for Brown Institute in Nebraska and Iowa, at $35,000 annually.

At his next job, with Aureus Medical Group in Omaha, his salary took a big leap.

"I made good money -- money I don't even want to talk about," Janssen said.

He paid off his car, paid $300 a month for his apartment and saved much of the rest, he said

In 2000, after talking to friends, he decided to open his own medical staffing business, with partners, initially operating it out of an Omaha apartment. In 2001, he married and moved the business to Fremont.

RTG Medical, which places temporary nurses and allied health professionals in hospitals and clinics nationwide, started with no debt and $1 million income the first year. It doubled that income annually in those first years of operations, he said.

In 2005, RTG cracked the top 500 of Inc. magazine's fastest-growing companies and now employs upwards of 50 people.

Employees are loyal in a small town, Janssen said, some driving many miles each day to work at the firm and enjoy the benefits of a Keiser fitness facility and Wii game console, and catered breakfasts and lunches each day.

***

Janssen filed for divorce about the same time he announced his bid for the Legislature, and it became final at the end of last year. He shares custody of their two children -- a son who is a first-grader and a daughter who is 3.

In January, on the first day of the session, he proposed in the legislative chamber to 22-year-old Ellen Fauss. They plan to marry in Hawaii in September.

He thought he would never get married again, he said. He was not looking for a wife.

"This just felt amazingly right," he said.

***

Janssen grew up around politics and public service. His mother was the Nickerson village clerk for 20 years, his father served on the village board and his uncle was in the Legislature 16 years.

But as an adult, he found himself voting more and more with Republicans. Smaller government became more important to him as he began to pay his own taxes, he said.

Ray Janssen, now an independent, said his nephew came to Lincoln a few years back telling him he was going to run for Congress. His uncle advised him to get his feet wet first in the Legislature. He listened.

His opinions on some issues differ from his nephew's, he said, but the senator is doing a fine job.

"Charlie's a free thinker," he said. "He's not afraid to tackle something hard. ... He stands up for what he believes in, and that's a good trait, whether you agree with him or not."

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.

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