The continuing crisis of states imposing draconian and inhumane immigration laws continues, and hits the main page of BusinessWeek. More states will realize the consequences, both political and economic, of implementing these types of laws that vilify immigrants and seem to scape goat many problems years in the making on the backs of people who actually contribute and make the country a better place.
Today's battlefront is Alabama, and the stupidity is coming home to roost.
Some of the provisions of this bill are just sickening. Hiring an undocumented immigrant? State crime. Providing shelter for housing to an undocumented immigrant? State crime. Giving a stranded undocumented immigrant a ride to the nearest pay phone? You guessed it, state crime.
People won't be able to pick up their kids and their kids friends after practice without the worry and suspicion that they could be guilty of violating this POS law.
Tuscaloosa County’s 6,000-strong Hispanic population—including roofers, drywallers, framers, landscapers, and laborers—is disappearing in anticipation of a new law aimed at ridding the state of illegal immigrants, which takes effect in September. “They’re leaving now, right now,” says Duarte, 36, during a pause in a pickup soccer game. “I know people who are packing up tonight. They don’t want to wait to see what happens.”
Well we know what happens. There's a mass exodus from sectors that traditionally employ latinos and undocumented immigrants, and the results tend to be bleak. How could they not be?
Alabama has an estimated 120,000 undocumented immigrants, a nearly fivefold increase from a decade ago, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Many of them are believed to be working on farms, at chicken processing plants and in construction.
Sad that in the wake of natural disaster, there may be a shortage of help and a prolonged recovery because of the racism.
Tuscaloosa is home to the University of Alabama and its storied Crimson Tide football team. The tornado roared through the city, killing 43 and leaving a path of rubble three-quarters of a mile wide and six miles long. The immigration law threatens to unleash its own havoc as the city tries to rebuild. “Hispanics, documented and undocumented, dominate anything to do with masonry, concrete, framing, roofing, and landscaping,” says Bob McNelly, a contractor with Nash-McCraw Properties.
Let's hope the courts follow through on striking down these unconstitutional and racists laws, and that we can get some traction on real immigration reform. We need it badly. Whether its conventions canceling in Arizona, Georgia farmers letting crops rot on the vine, or Alabama scenes of destruction unable to rebuild, these shortsighted laws are just plain wrong.