After Ruling, Hispanics Flee an Alabama Town

[n2doc]

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: October 3, 2011

ALBERTVILLE, Ala. — The vanishing began Wednesday night, the most frightened families packing up their cars as soon as they heard the news.

They left behind mobile homes, sold fully furnished for a thousand dollars or even less. Or they just closed up and, in a gesture of optimism, left the keys with a neighbor. Dogs were fed one last time; if no home could be found, they were simply unleashed.

Two, 5, 10 years of living here, and then gone in a matter of days, to Tennessee, Illinois, Oregon, Florida, Arkansas, Mexico — who knows? Anywhere but Alabama.

The exodus of Hispanic immigrants began just hours after a federal judge in Birmingham upheld most provisions of the state’s far-reaching immigration enforcement law.

The judge, Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, upheld the parts of the law allowing state and local police to ask for immigration papers during routine traffic stops, rendering most contracts with illegal immigrants unenforceable and requiring schools to ascertain the immigration status of children at registration time.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/us/after-ruling-hispanics-flee-an-alabama-town.html

[mainer]

1. Replacing immigrant labor with prisoners?

I guess there's nothing as cheap as slave labor.

[Skidmore]

5. The south is coming full circle gradually.

Back to the future.

[saras]

2. I always wondered if there was a position between racism and genocide.

I guess "you're outlaws, and free game for anybody" comes pretty close.

[xchrom]

3. recommend

[snooper2]

4. Wait for the cheap labor backlash...

[pampango]

6. Republican legislature/governor/base not sorry about minorities leaving. Misson accomplished.

Guess we'll see if "deportin' all them 'illegals'" (at least to other states) will end up being good for Alabama's economy and its workers. Some think it will be good for the workers that remain. Others think that the economy will suffer to the point that everyone is worse off.

If this "experiment" proves to be a disaster for all concerned, I wonder if all those right wingers who use "deport 'em all" as the sum total of their immigration reform policy will take another look at the value of a comprehensive approach as favored by the CPC and organized labor. Not likely, I know.