Alabama now has the toughest immigration law in the nation. Leave it to a state some 1,200 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border to show Arizona how it’s done.
What’s next: saguaro-care tips from Wisconsin?
Regardless from whence we get our cactus-care guidelines, we do know the Arizona judge’s decisions that quashed large sections of Arizona’s version of the law rendered it basically useless. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton only upheld a few portions of the highly controversial law, also known as big, bad SB 1070. One was stiffer penalties if you are caught crossing the border with illegal immigrants stuffed in the back of a piñata truck or hiding them in an unfinished Phoenix garage.
Bolton killed off the part about police checking immigrant status during traffic stops, detentions and even arrests.
“There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens,” she riled. It was unclear if her quote came before or after she nixed the law’s other requirement that legal immigrants carry their citizenship papers around at all times, which would help prevent such arrests. But no, she said, carrying all that paper would be too much of a burden.
Bolton also did not like the part about it being illegal for an undocumented immigrant to have a job—which certainly makes sense, since there are dozens of lucrative positions to go around in Arizona.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, in Alabama, U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn upheld sections of the law that were similar to those blocked in Arizona. She actually approved the law’s provision allowing police to check a person’s immigration status during traffic stops and arrests if a “reasonable suspicion” exists that the person might be here illegally.
She gave the thumbs-up to the part requiring elementary and secondary schools to check the immigration status of incoming students.
She also said OK to the sections about voiding any contracts people knowingly made with illegal immigrants, and barring any transactions between illegal immigrants and any division of the state. The latter has already led to one Montgomery man having his application for water and sewage service denied, according to The New York Times.
That’s really gotta stink.
Not every provision was upheld by Blackburn. Those she squashed, however, left the law’s effectiveness largely intact. She got rid of the part about barring illegal immigrants from attending or enrolling in public universities. She also blocked the section that outlawed the harboring or transporting of illegal immigrants—perhaps due to Alabama’s dearth of piñata trucks and unfinished Phoenix garages.
Some are already complaining, such as the American Civil Liberties Union’s Andre Segura, who is quoted in the Times. “We’re really disappointed,” he said. “We already know that this is going to cause a lot of problems in Alabama.”
It sure will—for illegal immigrants.
The drastically different rulings in the two states are definitely ironic, especially since both came from U.S. District Court. What’s even more ridiculous than the drastically different rulings are the hoops through which a state has to jump when it is simply trying to uphold an existing federal law.
Illegal entry into the U.S. is a crime, federal law says. The list of “grounds for aliens’ inadmissibility or removal” ranges from health concerns to child-abuse convictions, from lack of proper documentation to “the likelihood of their becoming a public charge.”
Yet when states want to go ahead and do something about it, there is a fair chance that the fear of stepping on toes will set in. It might not be politically correct. It might hurt someone’s feelings. It might spark a lawsuit.
The Alabama judge’s bold move is definitely a welcome breakthrough that will hopefully become the norm rather than an anomaly. Too many others find it easier to simply live with an existing problem rather than make waves by actually doing something about it.
Bolton was even quoted as saying it was less harmful “preserving the status quo” than it would be to uphold parts of the law that may result in the mistaken arrest of legal immigrants.
It’s a good thing not all laws are decided by such wishy-washy standards. That would mean no one would ever be wrongfully arrested—simply because no one would ever be arrested at all. And then we could use all the money we saved on prisons for something useful, such as planting and caring for saguaro cactuses grown in Wisconsin.
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2011.
NOT JUST FARMERS, AGRICULTURE? IT IS EVERY AMERICAN BUSINESS? SHAME ON YOU!
Pay Farm labor a decent living wage, with health care and education for their family, instead of dumping the illegal labor costs on the taxpayer. Then you will find people desperate for a job, any job will come forward to work the fields. Farmers and giant agricultural consortium’s have been underpaying illegal labor forever and along with all the special subsidies, the same as most business owners. It has been proofed that it only cost a few more cents to the consumer, for vegetable and fruit if labor for the agrarian community pay fair wages for the work done. My grandfather picked apples in Washington State as did other family members. To make ends meet after World War Two, my distant relatives in the English countryside, picked strawberries for the local farmers. Make it a national policy to implement the E-Verify bill (H.R. 2885), identifiable as the “Legal Workforce Act”. Contact your own local Senator or Representative and insist as a voter to your federal politician at 202-224-3121.
This is just not about the farmers; it’s about meat packing plants, factories and manufacturing. Of course they don’t want to employ regular Americans-legal residents. It’s about any company owner—big or small—who wants to pay as little as possible, with no restrictions on as little they want to pay, for a person’s labor. They have violated this ‘Rule of Law’ because there have been no restrictions on prohibitions to stop them, until Lamar Smith’s H.R. 2885. Special interest groups and the radical open border activists, are currently trying to kill the federal ‘Secure Communities’ initiative. Any individual that is apprehended by the police will have their fingerprints forwarded to ICE, Homeland Security and the FBI for processing. Police data-bases can quickly assess who has been previously arrested, whether he/she is an illegal alien or not.
Learn the facts about illegal alien costs, statistics and business corruption at NumbersUSA, Judicial Watch and American Patrol. Make every Business, Company and workplace be committed to E-Verify or face harsh consequences. No business owner, no matter who he is, should think he is above the law. That also is a constant with political figures who own grape plantations in the bread basket of central California. This is not just for Farmers and agriculture but for every business owner, so that we can put every American worker in a job and stop catering to other counties impoverished. Go further and re-enact the “Bracero Project” of 1942 with rules and regulations, arranged so migrants from across the Southern border have easier access to specific jobs. The “Bracero Program” established why the plan proved immeasurably accepted among so many migrants, for whom seasonal labor in the US presented grand opportunities, despite some of the poor conditions they often were confronted with in the fields and camps.
Even under some poor situations they saved money, could buy consumer good, tools or an older vehicle, and returned home with new outlooks and a greater sense of self-respect.
In places as Mexico counselors studied these positive aspects of the economic and cultural effects of bracer project. If they are retained for employment the government must oversee they are treated correctly. They have to be issued a field workers visa that terminates at the end of harvesting and a mandatory return to their own country. Only through an employment office at entry ports can these people be hired and not through third parties or recruited by less than honest business enterprises. If they remain free of any major problems while employed in the U.S., they can renew their visas. As in Mexico—every person is tracked; all the farm and agricultural workers must be tracked, so they cannot decide to drop the job they are allocated to and disappear in the American job market. The “Bracero program” seemed to work very well, until it was dismantled in 1964. Through unfettered fraud millions of illegal aliens and their families have arrived here, after the 1986 Immigration Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
Eventually there was an increasing apprehension among businesses owners that the provisions within the guide lines of the program ensured the amplification of costs for the imported labor. This fair program mandated an assured level of wages, housing, food and Health care for the workers (to be paid for by the employers) that kept the standard of living above what many from across the border. Farmers and their associated Agrarian colleagues realized they could elevate their profits, by enjoying the extremely hard work in the fields, by hiring illegal aliens who are now exploited. Agriculture didn’t want to pay for the health care or schooling for their children and other benefits, as in the orderly federal “Bracero program.” They prefer the Taxpayers carry the weight of costs for the labor that they hire. Farmers already receive huge subsidies from the U.S. Government. Simple fact the farmers and all the growers of produce got greedy, for even larger profits.
A new fair migrant worker program will never, ever be possible under the entrenched GOP establishment and many in the Democratic ranks. Illegal Immigration will never end under the elitists Republicans or Democrats who really run the House and Senate. Americans can join forces and stop the overcrowded classroom full of the children of illegal parents. Stop the suffocation in the emergency rooms from foreign nationals crowding the waiting areas. Self Deportation if parents can no longer steal jobs from citizens.
Many politicians have their own revenues in the illegal alien labor market. Only the TEA PARTY will stop the pollution that emanates from Washington and the Congress.
Ryn, you have no idea what you’re talking about from either a legal or a public-policy perspective.
Ironical, ain’t it Rynski? You gotta head into the deep, dark, democratic south to find justice for the average working stiff American. 😉
Great article media maven, you have a perspective shared pervasively with the American public…but oddly lacking in the ‘established’ media and most of our courts. Very well put.
Right, Alabama is such a good example of what other states should aspire to. Pretty much at the bottom of every list of accomplishments and quality of life. They want to keep it that way, make sure the good ol’ boys keep doing what they’ve done so well for the last 200 years? Have at it, Alabama. Truth is, the immigrants in the South usually outperform the resident locals at whatever they choose to do — more energy, more innovation, unburdened by racism — so better to expel them, make their lives hard, then exploit their virtues. We should try it here in Arizona? We already do, which is why we’ve slipped below Alabama on most indices of good places to live. But let’s give it one more try. One more insane try. Build a wall. That worked so well in Berlin….
The reason people want to escape Mexico is the rampant corruption there – flagrant and unchecked violation of the law. Ironic, isn’t it?
Yes, Dave Francis, we can’t be educating children now, can we? Just think what an educated population will mean to our nation’s (not to mention the tea party’s) future!
Rachel and Jake, love your comments — reminds me I don’t live in a totally fascist state. By the way, are you aware of this upcoming conference….
The Human Rights Documentation and Social Media Reporting Conference, October 14th and 15th, 2011
Rogers College of Law University
Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
The Oct. 14th conference is free, open to the public, and once you register lunch is provided for free. Conferee Registration is necessary. To register, write to Sarah the registrar and request a registration form at: hrsocialmedia2@gmail.com.. Registration Deadline: Tuesday October 11th. Conference Details are on the website: https://sites.google.com/site/rightsandmed…
Friday, October 14th Activities:
Presentations from five human rights organizations: Amnesty International U of A, Derechos Humanos, Gente de I’itoi, A.C., Nor More Deaths, ACLU-Arizona.
Lunchtime lecture by author Linda Rabben, PhD
Panel discussion of U.S. Immigration Policy
Saturday, October 15 Activities:
Workshop 1: A K-12 Educators Workshop on Refugees and Immigrants (CEU letters provided).
Workshop 2: A Social Media Workshop for secondary teacher mentors, University student mentors, and HS students. High School students can and must register with the registrar (see above) by completing a short application and consent form University students or teachers who want to attend both days’ activities can be mentors by requesting a mentor registration from Sarah.
? Hey jake, truth is roughly 10% unemployment. Right here. Oh, and anybody who doesn’t think the Berlin wall was effective, was never shot at trying to cross it.
“Illegal entry into the U.S. is a crime, federal law says”, according to Ryn. First of all, this sloppy statement contains obvious redundance because, if it’s “Illegal”, then of course it’s a “crime”. Second, entry without going through inspection is the actual crime, and that goes for both U.S. citizens and immigrants.
Ryn goes on to list “grounds for aliens’ inadmissibility or removal”, implying that they are criminal offenses, which they are not. An immigrant not admitted for “health concerns” has not been convicted of any crime, and neither has one who is removed for that reason.
Dave, Rachel, and Jake are totally right.