Tag: alabama immigration

It's well known by now that Alabama's new immigration laws have proven once again that there are some jobs most Americans just won't do, such as seasonal farm labor.

With State Senator Russell Pearce's dramatic recall in Arizona behind us, the nation's immigration watchers turn their eyes to Alabama, now home to the nation's fiercest immigration laws.

Immigration and human rights experts say that no other developed country has passed an immigration law as stringent as Alabama’s.

Mock cable news conservative Stephen Colbert this week skewered Alabama lawmakers who passed the state's toughest-in-the-nation anti-illegal immigration legislation this year. Alabama's "papers please" law endorsed in Colorado by immigration crusader Tom Tancredo came amid a wave of similar proposals floated last spring by Republican state lawmakers around the country, including here in Colorado. The law has led to a mass exodus of Latinos in Alabama, which has left the agricultural industry shorthanded and thousands of acres of produce unpicked and rotting during harvest season.

Many Republicans, including the governor of Alabama, are hesitating to publicly praise Alabama’s controversial immigration law, most of which remains in effect even after a federal circuit court blocked one of its more controversial provisions.

As Alabama has supplanted Arizona as the state with the strictest immigration laws, it's no surprise that it is also gathering supporters and opponents from all over the world. The latest out of state group to weigh in is Colorado's Team America, led by former congressman Tom Tancredo.

In Alabama, it is time to get the hell out. Latinos, some documented, some full citizens, some the proverbial illegal immigrants, are one and all pulling up stakes--or just leaving the stakes behind.

Civil and immigrant rights groups have expressed outrage about a federal judge’s decision to allow many of the provisions of Alabama’s new immigration enforcement law to go into effect. However, the groups have already filed an appeal with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and expect a preliminary decision very soon.

You want sweet potatoes from Alabama? You want tomatoes? Alabama farmers are saying tens of millions of dollars of crops may be lost this year because of immigration reform measures passed in the state which are making it difficult for farmers to find workers.

The Montgomery Advertiser reports that Alabama’s new immigration enforcement law, which was set to go into effect on Sept. 1, was temporarily blocked until at least Sept. 29 by U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn.