MONTGOMERY, AL (AP) - Alabama’s strict new immigration law was touted by state legislators as a job creation bill.
The idea was to force illegal workers out of jobs and open them up for legal residents. Early indications are the plan is backfiring.
Few people are filling any of the vacancies that have been created by the construction workers, landscapers and farmers who are leaving. The absence will surely deal a blow to the state’s economy and could slow the rebuilding of Tuscaloosa and other tornado-damaged cities.
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It’s not clear how many of an estimated 185,000 Hispanic people in the state have fled. One estimate figured as much one-fourth of the commercial building work force had left since much of the law was upheld last week.
Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center has won some encouraging victories in the months since they launched their effort to defeat Alabama’s harsh anti-immigrant law.
Currently, the following provisions of HB 56 are in effect:
• Police are allowed to check the immigration status of people they stop and reasonably suspect are in the country unlawfully.
• All new contracts between an undocumented immigrant and another person are unenforceable in state court, with the exception of contracts for one night?s lodging, food purchases and medical services.
• It is a felony for undocumented immigrants to enter into a “business transaction? with the state of Alabama. The scope of this felony remains unclear, but includes applying for a driver?s license or a business license. The provision also include transactions with subdivisions of the state, such as cities and counties.
• Beginning April 1, 2012, employers will be required to use e-verify to determine the immigration status of prospective employees.
Other provisions of the law have been temporarily blocked by the courts. These include provisions that:
• Require K-12 school officials to question students about their immigration status and that of their parents.
• Prohibit residents from transporting or harboring undocumented immigrants.
• Make it a traffic violation for motorists who stop in the roadway to hire a day laborer.
• Prohibit universities from enrolling certain immigrants ? including asylees, refugees or those granted temporary protected status.
• Make it a misdemeanor for failing to complete or carry an alien registration card.
• Prohibit employers from taking state tax deductions for wages paid to undocumented workers.
• Allow employers to be sued for discrimination by people with U.S. citizen or legal immigration status when they are fired or not hired by an employer with undocumented employees.
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‘Apartheid’ States in The U.S.
American Anti-Immigrant Xenophobia
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In Other Republican/Fox HATE THY IMMIGRANT News:
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1. REPORT: IN IMMIGRATION COVERAGE, FOX SHUNS PRO-IMMIGRANT VOICES — A year ago, News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch claimed that Fox News is not “anti-immigrant,” a statement seemingly contradicted by near-daily segments on the network portraying immigrants in a negative light. Now, a Media Matters analysis of Fox News guests from April 2010 to June 2011 has found that of the guests Fox chose to discuss immigration, an overwhelming majority took anti-immigrant positions or held anti-immigrant views. In fact, our data show that anti-immigrant guests outnumbered those with a pro-immigrant point of view by a 3-to-1 margin. [ READ MORE ]
2. Fox News’ Anti-Immigrant Agenda Has Spilled Over Into Mainstream
3. STUDY: On Fox News, Immigrants Are Synonymous With Criminality
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