Alabama immigration law challenged by US government

[TacoD]

Source: AP via The Guardian

The federal government asked an appeals court on Friday to halt an Alabama immigration law considered by many as the toughest in the United States, saying it invites discrimination against foreign-born citizens and legal immigrants.

The federal government filed the challenge to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. It claimed Alabama's new law "is highly likely to expose persons lawfully in the United States, including school children, to new difficulties in routine dealings."

The overhaul allows authorities to question people suspected of being in the country illegally and hold them without bond. It also lets officials check the immigration status of students in public schools.

A federal judge in Alabama upheld those two key aspects of the law, which have already taken effect.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/07/alabama-immigration-law-appeal-justice-department

[EFerrari]

1. This law violates the Civil Rights Act up one side and down the other.

And it has the potential to violate the Voting Rights Act.

[pampango]

2. Ethnic Cleansing in Alabama. Nativist Backers Say “That’s the Point”

You’ve probably heard that Alabama has begun implementing the harshest anti-immigrant law in the country. Their stated goal is to wipe every undocumented person from the state by putting such a squeeze on their communities that they are terrorized out. Police, public utilities companies and even elementary schools are authorized to report anyone they think may be undocumented.

One terrified woman’s description of the climate manufactured by the nativists in Alabama says it all: I was born in the United States. I know I have my American rights. But if I go outside people are going to think I’m illegal. I get scared because we have the color.

But according to the nativists, things are going according to plan – they like what they see.

Anti-immigration activists, like Krikorian, applaud the devastation and turmoil that Latino families in Alabama are experiencing. They are driven by their anti-immigrant fervor and have no shame. As expected, http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/10/06/337764/sen-sessions-its-not-sad-immigrant-children-too-scared-to-go-to-school-its-sad-theyre-here-in-the-first-place/">Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions seems unbothered by the human impact, too.

http://americasvoiceonline.org/blog/entry/ethnic_cleansing_in_alabama._nativist_backers_say_thats_the_point/

[kpete]

3. Obama administrations seeks to overturn harsh Alabama immigration law

Source: Raw Story

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday sought to repeal a harsh new Alabama law on immigration, setting up the latest clash between the White House and Republican state leaders over the thorny issue of undocumented migrants.

The Justice Department urged the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to overturn a ruling that let stand much of state law HB 56, which makes it a crime to be undocumented in Alabama and allows schools to check the immigrant status of students.

Opponents say the measures — even harsher than the deeply controversial laws established last year in Arizona — are largely unconstitutional and amount to racial profiling, while supporters insist the state is merely implementing policy that Washington has been too weak to enforce itself.

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It argued that the law “creates a panoply of new state offenses that criminalize, among other things, an alien’s failure to comply with federal registration requirements… an alien’s attempt to solicit or perform work, and an alien’s attempt to interact with… government.”

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/07/obama-administrations-seeks-to-overturn-harsh-alabama-immigration-law/

[L. Coyote]

4. Next, challenging voter ID laws.