Alabama Immigration Law

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20111117/NEWS/111119590

MONTGOMERY | Legislative leaders may be at odds with some rank-and-file senators over changing the state’s controversial illegal immigration law.

The Republican-controlled Legislature passed the law this spring. The law took effect in September amid protests from civil rights groups that contend the new law is unconstitutional and unduly harsh on Hispanic residents. But the law has also elicited complaints from businesses, law enforcement and government officials and other citizens because of its burdensome regulatory requirements, and that has some GOP senators contemplating changes.

Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, said he is working with a few other senators to modify the law without weakening it.

“If we have made some mistakes, which I have done, we need to correct them and move on,” Dial said.

Dial said he wants to try to make sure that people renewing their professional licenses and people buying car tags only have to prove their legal residency in Alabama once rather than every year. Dial, a former teacher and coach, said he would also like to take out the part of the law that requires schools to check the legal residency of new students, but he doubts there is enough support for removing that part of the law. That provision has also been put on hold by the federal courts. He also wants to remove a “good Samaritan” clause that would protect people who help others in distress, even if they’re illegally in the country.

Another Republican senator working with Dial, Montgomery car dealer Dick Brewbaker, said the documents needed to buy a vehicle and these documents needed to get a tag aren’t the same in the law and that they should be.

“It’s clearly crazy and causing a lot of confusion for people who just moved into the state,” he said.

The bill’s House sponsor, Republican Micky Hammon of Decatur, said he wants to clarify that all military IDs are acceptable for proving legal residency, but he’s opposed to major changes.

“We will discuss tweaking some definitions and making the law more user-friendly, but we will not weaken the bill,” Hammon said Wednesday.

Making even minor changes may be difficult when the Legislature convenes in February. Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh said he would consider only changes recommended by Attorney General Luther Strange, who is defending the law against legal challenges by the U.S. Justice Department and others.

“If (Strange) comes forward and says this is an issue, we’ll address it, but until that happens that’s not an issue in my opinion for the next legislative session,” Marsh said.

Dial said he and the other senators open to changes have not had a chance to discuss specifics with Marsh.

Sen. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, said he believes the law can be modified without weakening it.

“There are people, probate judges, revenue commissioners across the state, who have expressed concerns about getting things done, like licenses,” Allen said.

Republican Gov. Robert Bentley has already called for simplifying the law, which sponsors say was adopted to force the federal government to enforce its immigration laws.

Bentley press secretary Jennifer Ardis said Bentley has proposed nothing specific yet. “The governor has said that the essence of the law will not change — (if) you live and work in Alabama, you must do so legally,” she said.

House Speaker Mike Hubbard of Auburn said he’s open to minor changes, such as making sure military IDs can be used to buy car tags. “Obviously that was never intended to not be allowed,” he said.

Joining Dial in pushing for changes is Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills. Waggoner on Tuesday became the new Senate Rules Committee chairman, replacing Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, who was removed partly because of the controversy surrounding his involvement as a witness in the bingo gambling trial and comments he has made.

Beason was co-author of the immigration law, which has triggered protests, lawsuits and a Department of Justice investigation of potential civil rights violations.

Democratic Sen. Billy Beasley has written legislation to repeal the law. Beasley, who voted against the law in June, said Wednesday that the negative national exposure the law has brought to Alabama is evidence that it is mean-spirited and discriminatory against Hispanics.

“What we’ve done is tell the Hispanics we don’t want you in Alabama. Legal Hispanics are leaving as well as illegals,” he said.

The chief executive of Alabama’s state pension system, David Bronner, said last week that other states competing with Alabama for foreign-owned industries are using the law to portray Alabama as an unfriendly place.

Hubbard and Marsh disputed that at their news conference Wednesday. “I’ve talked to our industrial recruiters, and it’s not been an issue for them,” the speaker said.

But in an interview later, Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day said it is. He said officials from about 25 foreign companies have visited the southwest Alabama town to consider possible plant sites since Thomasville recruited a Canadian steel company in July 2010.

“Up until a few months ago, nobody raised the immigration issue,” he said. But in the last few months, he said it’s brought up regularly because he believes competing states are mentioning it in their negotiations and trying to portray Alabama as unwelcoming to foreigners even though that is not the truth. From the questions he gets from industrial prospects, he also suspects competing states are recounting stories from Alabama’s civil rights past.

“It’s bringing back old images from 40 or 50 year ago,” he said.

In Montgomery on Tuesday, 13 people who said they were undocumented immigrants and were protesting the state law were arrested on misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges after blocking a street or refusing to leave the State House when it closed.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, Temple Black, was asked whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement has become involved in the case and will pursue civil deportation.

“ICE has not lodged detainers at this time,” Black said. “ICE will follow routine procedures to determine if anyone in the group is subject to removal and assess where they lie on the list of ICE civil enforcement priorities.”

An attorney for those arrested, Mike Winter, said ICE has 48 hours to determine whether it will issue detainers.

An Illinois congressman on Wednesday said that several members of Congress will be in Alabama on Monday to lend their voices to an attempt to repeal the law. U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, is among those scheduled to attend a news conference at 2 p.m. at Birmingham City Hall.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.


I didn't know much about this law before reading about it. I can see why they want to make changes to the immigration laws. It would cost a lot of money for people to have to prove that they are citizens every year. It doesn't happen often that people have their citizenship taken away so I agree that it's not necessary to check every year. 
Also, I wonder what they were planning on doing with children that were here illegally. If they were planning on deporting them even if their parents were here legally. 
In my opinion all this law is doing is having people move around. People are going to move to the states that don't have immigration laws yet. Like Democratic Sen. Billy Beasley, they don't want hispanics. I guess it doesn't matter if they are immigrants or not.