Alabama's new immigration law has a provision a lot of people may not have heard about, but which is pretty appalling. From the National Immigration Law Center:
A coalition of civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit today to stop a portion of Alabama’s anti-immigrant law requiring state officials to post an online list of immigrants who may be undocumented, without providing them with any way to contest their inclusion in the database.
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The latest attack on immigrants in Alabama is part of HB 658, a package of revisions to the state’s notorious anti-immigrant law, HB 56. HB 658 effectively doubled-down on the draconian nature of the original law enacted in 2011. Section 5 of HB 658 requires the state to compile and post on a public website the names and other information clearly identifying certain immigrants unable to prove their legal status when they are detained on any state charge, no matter how minor, and appear in state court. The plaintiffs in this case would fall within this requirement and be unconstitutionally added to this “blacklist.”
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This law requires the posting of private information that the federal government has declared confidential and not subject to public disclosure. Once a person is on the list, the law provides no means to remove their name or change their information if the listing is inaccurate or the person obtains permission to live in the United States — even if the person becomes a citizen.
“This part of Alabama’s anti-immigrant law represents an unfortunate effort to bully and intimidate immigrants into leaving Alabama,” said Kristi Graunke, staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center. “It is designed to permanently brand, humiliate and otherwise make life difficult for immigrants regardless of status. It conflicts with federal privacy requirements and burdens the already cash-strapped state court system. Sadly, laws like this show that Alabama has yet to turn away from the devastation its anti-immigrant laws have caused.”
Nothing new here...racist Alabama which wants to return to the Jim Crowe days combined with some old fashioned police state communism.
Posted by: George Chell | February 08, 2013 at 05:34 AM
I am a legal immigrant and live in AL... just ashamed of this. I am ashamed of even telling people I am from AL both here and abroad. Time to leave...
Posted by: Rocky_W | February 07, 2013 at 01:35 PM