IMAGE SOURCE: The Black Daily
BY MIKKEL NOEL LANZKY
The Department of Justice has asked an appeals court to block Alabama’s controversial immigration law that has already driven many Hispanic students from public schools. MSNBC gets us up to speed.
“The government is challenging a couple of provisions of this law. A federal judge in Alabama stopped some provisions but allowed most of the law to go into effect and it is those provisions in effect that the government wants to stop.”
Alabama’s immigration law is considered the strictest in the country -- containing harsh provisions the DOJ says could target people legally in the country. Alabama Live tells us:
“[The law is] directing police to check immigration status of people involved in traffic stops and arrests; barring entering contracts with illegal immigrants; requiring schools to check the immigration status of enrollees and prohibiting illegal immigrants from entering into business transactions with state and local government.”
Spokespeople for Alabama’s more than 180,000 Hispanics have openly criticized the law -- Latino news and community site Cuéntame even sees a sinister plan behind the tough policy.
“So here is how it goes: 1) Alabama passes an anti-immigrant law, 2) Immigrants get detained, 3) Private Prisons [...] receive inmates, 4) Lack of workers is filled by new inmate labor. SLAVERY ANYONE?”
It only fanned the flames of criticism when it turned out this week, that the first person arrested under the new law, a Yemeni, wasn’t an illegal immigrant. The Huffington Post has that story.
“It turns out [the man arrested] is not in the U.S. illegally, as some had suggested. His attorney provided documentation of his legal status on Monday.”
The law also has consequences for Alabama farmers, whose crops are now dying because the law has scared away workers needed for the harvest. CNN spoke with some of the farmers.
“We did everything we could to replace them. Nobody wants the jobs. There is a misconception.”
“Basically this law is shutting us down. And that’s the money that we live on.”
Transcript by Newsy.
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