In Alabama, a Harsh Bill for Residents Here Illegally

[Derechos]

snip

Cecillia Wang, director of the immigrants’ rights project of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has brought legal challenges against several state immigration-control laws. Calling Alabama’s bill “outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional,” Ms. Wang said, “We will take action if the governor signs it.”

The Alabama bill includes a provision similar to one that stirred controversy in Arizona, authorizing state and local police officers to ask about the immigration status of anyone they stop based on a “reasonable suspicion” the person is an illegal immigrant. Federal courts have suspended most of that Arizona law.

Alabama’s bill goes beyond Arizona’s. It bars illegal immigrants from enrolling in any public college after high school. It obliges public schools to determine the immigration status of all students, requiring parents of foreign-born students to report the immigration status of their children.

The bill requires Alabama’s public schools to publish figures on the number of immigrants — both legal and illegal — who are enrolled and on any costs associated with the education of illegal immigrant children.

The bill, known as H.B. 56, also makes it a crime to knowingly rent housing to an illegal immigrant. It bars businesses from taking tax deductions on wages paid to unauthorized immigrants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/04/us/04immig.html?scp=2&sq=alabama&st=cse

[LuvNewcastle]

1. I don't think this law will be passed.

If politics in Alabama are anything like Mississippi politics, this is just a distraction. The GOP doesn't really care about immigration, abortion, etc; they only care about making more money for rich people. They use these issues to get elected and spend the next four years ignoring the "problem" while they loot the treasury, shit on workers' rights, and gut environmental protections. People only hold them accountable for what they say, not what they do.

[dkf]

4. It already passed the Senate and the House and is ready for the Governor's signature.

They are calling it a jobs bill for Americans. I guess we will see what the results are.

[pampango]

5. Oh, it passed. The repub base/teabaggers pushed the repub legislature hard enough

(as they have in a number of other repub-controlled states) to get the legislation they wanted. Democrats, civil rights groups and the ACLU didn't have any success in derailing the "teabagger express" in Alabama or in several other repub states.

[JCMach1]

2. Florida tried this (didn't pass) and Georgia did pass it- this is one of those off the shelf

pieces of legislation that are being crammed down everyone's throats by the Repugs.

On edit: I think TN passed it as well.

[Name removed]

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[Obamanaut]

6. More here -->

In Alabama, a Harsh Bill for Residents Here Illegally
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=1229036

Alabama's Immigration Law: you're an alien if you can't show a police officer the right papers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=1227907

Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free.....nevermind
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=1227154

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. I have been to Alabama about half a dozen times...

I don't think I recall seeing a single hispanic person,