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Latest update: 10/06/2011
- immigration - USA
Alabama pass tough new law on immigration
The US state of Alabama has passed one of the country's harshest immigration laws, which will require state schools to determine the legal status of pupils.
By News Wires (text)
REUTERS - Republican Governor Robert Bentley on Thursday signed into law a crackdown on illegal immigration in Alabama that both supporters and critics consider the toughest in the nation.
The measure will require public schools to determine the immigration status of students—an aspect not covered in an Arizona law that has been at the forefront as several U.S. states seek to crack down on illegal immigrants.
Under the Alabama law, police must detain someone they suspect of being in the country illegally if the person cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason.
It also will be a crime to knowingly transport or harbor someone who is in the country illegally. The law imposes penalties on businesses that knowingly employ someone without legal resident status. A company’s business license could be suspended or revoked.
The law, which is scheduled to go into effect Sept. 1, requires businesses to use a database called E-Verify to confirm the immigration status of new employees.
“We have a real problem with illegal immigration in this country,” Bentley said after signing the law. “I campaigned for the toughest immigration laws and I’m proud of the Legislature for working tirelessly to create the strongest immigration bill in the country.”
Immigration rights advocates are vowing to challenge the law in court, after having sued to block similar measures in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. The U.S. Justice Department also sued over Arizona’s law.
Alabama is the latest state to follow the lead of a controversial measure passed in Arizona last year. The courts blocked implementation of a provision allowing Arizona police to check the immigration status of people there.
But the U.S. Supreme Court recently endorsed a separate Arizona law requiring employers to use E-Verify. The court also ruled that Arizona could suspend or revoke business licenses of companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Will students be afraid?
Alabama’s law is unique in requiring public schools to determine, by review of birth certificates or sworn affidavits, the legal residency status of students.
“We fear that it will, in effect, ban the student through fear and harassment,” said Shay Farley, legal director of Alabama Appleseed, a non-profit policy and legal advocacy organization.
Farley said there also is concern about the increased financial burden on schools to collect the information.
“We definitely believe this is the nation’s toughest immigration law,” said Jared Shepherd, a law fellow with the Alabama American Civil Liberties Union.
The Alabama bill passed the state House of Representatives and Senate by large margins before landing on Bentley’s desk. Republicans took over majority control of both chambers of the Alabama legislature last year for the first time in 136 years.
Civil rights and immigrant rights groups mounted a campaign against the measure, urging voters to contact the governor and ask him to veto the bill.
Some pointed to concerns in Georgia, where farmers have complained that tough new curbs on immigration are creating a shortage of seasonal workers before they even go into effect.
But Gene Armstrong, mayor of Allgood, Alabama, a small community where the Hispanic population has grown to almost 50 percent, is not worried.
“We managed in the past without illegal immigrants to pick the tomatoes here, and I haven’t heard anyone say that if we sent them all home nobody would be left to do that work,” Armstrong said.
“When you have 9 percent unemployment, I think that some people who might not have wanted those jobs previously might reconsider.”
Several states have enacted immigration restrictions, even though the U.S. government considers it to be a federal issue.
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Comments (4)
congrats
i am so glad you passed this law!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alabama Immagration Law
It's about time....Please people get real...Would it not make more sense to fight to change the process of getting Illegal people status through a better and faster system, and know who is in our country, then to be lazy and take the easy way and just let them in...we need to keep track of who is here, do they pay taxes,are they criminals,are they sending all the money they make back to Mexico, instead of helping our economy...and I'm not just talking about Hispanics...I live in California and in San Francisco area we have tons of Chineese, Japaniese,Russan...etc..Being here without taking the proper steps is a crime...and what an insult to those who have done it the right way and paid their way...instead of paying Mexican Cartel thousands of dollars to get them here..think about it, use your brains...not just your hearts and feel sorry for them, but your brains as well...
The reason we do not have enough jobs is because there are to many Undocumented people here already...they do not all work in the fields and on farms....Just like back in the slave days, only the rich still want to fight for them to stay here, cause it benifits them to have cheap workers, like slaves, so the big farmers and rich Americans can make more profits..people here Illegally will never miss a day of work, ask for medical benifits (and why should they, when they can get free welfare medical)not report an injury,no vacation pay, not have to speak our American language, and get free schooling with special English classes for those who can't speak the american language for their children...It's an employers dream....While American have fought for generations to put in place things like sick-pay, paid vacations,retirement, medical benifits, raises...however, we get screwed when we Americans have to compete with the Illegal willing to let the employer cut corrnors and pay them for much less then their work is worth. If you could only see the living conditions that these Illegal families live in on these farms,it's sick...multi-families under one roof, nasty houses with trash all over the yards, and in homes or trailers that would otherwise be condemed...The Illegals won't say anything, or rock any boats,why? Because they don't want to have to leave this country...I say: then do it the right way, go through the legal process.....I have lived in 16 states throughout my life and its the same crap in every state...I have a friend who owns a Mexican Market and they say the employees claim all of their relitives who live in Mexico on their W-2 so they do not have to pay taxes, and it works...they also send at least 70 % of their pay checks (through Western Union in the store)back to Mexicao, and do not spend it here....Come on American get wiser to this Crap...JL
"Illegal Immigration"
It wasn't too long ago that when someone was prohibited from entering a location, a legal process was initiated against that person. Our country is allegedly a nation of law. Nowadays, our elected officials and other people defend clandestine outlaws. Those are people who sneak into a location without having authority or permission to to so. Isn't it unfathomable that law abidding citizens must now defend their own "law abiddingness"?
Government filawsuit to challenge Arizona immigration law
I believe that Immagration laws are already passed and they just need to follow the law on the books. We're not talking about immagrants here legally we are all happy to blend together with everyone who has come to this country with proper documentation. Get on line and wait your turn just like all our relatives of the past.
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