Alabama's New Immigration Law Hurts Immigrants and the State

November 10, 2011

“When millions of people are afraid to avail themselves of their rights under the U.S. legal system, the entire system is undermined. The injustice is not only to undocumented immigrants but to U.S. society as a whole.”
Grace Meng, Immigrant Injustice, Hill Congress Blog, October 7, 2011

On September 28, 2011, a Federal District Court Judge upheld most of the sections of Alabama’s harsh new immigration law, also known as HB 56 1 , which the U.S. Justice Department and civil rights groups had vigorously challenged.

Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn of Federal District Court in Birmingham made it more likely that the recent state laws against illegal immigration will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court.

The new law will not only hurt immigrants, it will also hurt the whole state of Alabama.  Judge Blackburn blocked a broad provision that outlawed the harboring or transportation of illegal immigrants along with a provision that barred illegal immigrants from enrolling in or attending public universities.  However, she ruled that a section that criminalized the “willful failure” of a person in the U.S. illegally to carry federal immigration papers did not preempt federal law. 2   The judge also upheld a section that requires state and local law enforcement to attempt to verify a person’s immigration status during routine traffic stops or arrests based on “reasonable suspicion.” 3  There is great concern that racial profiling will be used in making this determination, not only for illegal immigrants but also for legal residents.

The Justice Department in challenging this ruling filed an emergency request with the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to stop these provisions from taking effect, pending the resolution of their appeal. The Justice Department's challenge called the Alabama law a "sweeping new state regime" 4 and urged the appeals court to forbid states from creating a patchwork of independent immigration policies. It also said the law could strain diplomatic relations with Latin American countries, who have warned the law could impact millions of workers, tourists and students in the U.S.  The law, it said, turns illegal immigrants into a "unique class who cannot lawfully obtain housing, enforce a contract, or send their children to school without fear that enrollment will be used as a tool to seek to detain and remove them and their family members." 5 

On Friday, Oct. 14, the provision requiring public schools to check the immigration status of students was successfully blocked by the federal appeals court.  However, the court left in the provision requiring police to check residency status of people suspected of being illegal during traffic stops.

Alabama’s HB 56 law is the latest and broadest in the U.S. attacking illegal immigration, reaching further than one passed in Arizona.  Although Alabama has a relatively small population who are in the country illegally, the numbers have been increasing.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, immigrants comprised 4.9% of the state’s workforce in 2010. 6  Immigrants are important to Alabama’s economy as workers.  Unauthorized immigrants are also important to Alabama’s economy as workers and taxpayers. 

According to data from the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, unauthorized immigrants in Alabama paid $130.3 million in state and local taxes in 2010. 7  Unauthorized immigrants comprised roughly 4.2% of the state’s workforce in 2010 according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center. 8  Alabama would severely suffer economically if all unauthorized immigrants were removed from the state.  For example, the state would lose $2.6 billion in economic activity, $1.1 billion in gross state product, and about 17,819 jobs according to the Perryman Group. 9  To cope with the labor shortage, Alabama agriculture commissioner John McMillan suggested that farmers should consider hiring the 2,300 or so inmates in the state's work-release program. 10

There is no doubt that Alabama’s anti-immigrant law will push immigrants further underground, especially those that are crime victims.  Undocumented immigrants have always been afraid of government officials and the justice system.  Statistics have shown that immigrants avoid going to court even to pay traffic tickets because of fear towards Immigration and Customs Enforcement who have been spotted around courthouses.  If illegal immigrants do not have trust in law enforcement, they will not come forward to report criminal activity.  Most of the federal immigration remedies available to immigrant crime victims require reporting and cooperation with law enforcement.  State police do not have sufficient knowledge about these federal remedies; therefore, increasing their ability to use enforcement-only immigration laws will only drive potential victims away.  Law enforcement’s job is to serve and protect the community, not to scare and deport.

 1.    The Alabama Legislature passed House Bill 56 (H.B. 56) on June 2, 2011, titled the “Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act,” Ala. Laws Act 2011-535.  Considered the most anti-immigrant of all recent state legislative efforts nationwide, the law  contains provisions which:

• Requires immigrants to carry alien registration documents and makes failure to carry documentation of immigration status a misdemeanor;
• Requires state and local law enforcement to verify the immigration status of all people stopped on the basis that there is a "reasonable suspicion" that they are undocumented;
• Requires school officials to collect information on the immigration status of all students (though it does not expressly prohibit enrollment of undocumented students);
• Permits detention and prosecution of unlicensed drivers in the U.S. without authorization and allows for transfer to immigration custody;
• Nullifies any contracts entered into by undocumented immigrants;
• Makes entering a business transaction a felony for undocumented people; and,
• Forbids any transaction between an undocumented immigrant and any division of the state

 2.   Robertson, Campbell. “Alabama Wins in Ruling on Its Immigration Law.” New York Times on the web, 28 Sept 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/us/alabama-immigration-law-upheld.html

 3.   Ibid. 
 4.   Lyman, Brian. “Feds ask appeals court to block Ala. immigration law.” The Montgomery Advertiser on the USA Today web, 6 Oct 2011 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011-10-07/alabama-immigration-law/50688458/1
 5.   Ibid.
 6.   Immigration Policy Center, “Alabama’s Immigrants, Latinos and Asians: An Economic and Demographic Snapshot.”  30 Sept 2011 http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/new-americans-alabama
 7.   Ibid.
 8.   Ibid.
 9.   Ibid. 
 10. Sell, Mary. “McMillan: Inmates short-term option for farmers desperate for help.”