I hadn't seen this posted anywhere, and especially in light of the Farmworker's Reality Tour series and since I just wrote about the vicious cycle of failed immigration and farm policy, I thought this was quite apropos:
German Mercedes-Benz Executive Arrested Under Alabama’s Immigration Law
From the article:
Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson told The Associated Press an officer stopped a rental vehicle for not having a tag Wednesday night and asked the driver for his license. The man only had a German identification card, so he was arrested and taken to police headquarters, Anderson said.
The 46-year-old executive was charged with violating the immigration law for not having proper identification, but he was released after an associate retrieved his passport, visa and German driver’s license from the hotel where he was staying, Anderson said.
The immigration law they're talking about, of course, is HB 56, the state’s draconian immigration law that seeks to kick out all those job-stealing immigrant farm workers to create those coveted backbreaking minimum wage tomato-picking and fish-cleaning jobs for eager Americans. Of course, the whole job thingie hasn't been working out so well.
Why Americans won't do dirty jobs: Crackdown on immigrants leaves business owners struggling with shortages
You know, it's not just immigrant farm workers who are suffering here.
Alabama’s economy is suffering because of HB 56, the state’s draconian immigration law, as workers flee out of fear. State Sen. Scott Beason (R), who sponsored the anti-immigrant bill in the Alabama legislature, once called it a “jobs bill,” but the state’s immigration law is leaving entire industries without enough workers instead.
Now look, I don't rejoice in anyone getting arrested for such a seemingly minor wrong doing, and you know, I grew up in Stuttgart, Germany and went to high school across the street from mighty Daimler. But I have to admit, if this minor inconvenience to a German fat cat turns out to be the straw that breaks an insane law's back and thus helps out thousands of poor immigrant workers who are currently being punished just for wanting to work hard to make a living and support their families, then I think it was a worthy sacrifice.
The thing is, these kinds of laws are not only destroying farmers and farm workers, but it's scaring away other industries like, um, German car manufacturers
In October, the New York Times speculated in an editorial that despite best efforts to recruit foreign automakers to Alabama, the state was now “infamous as a regional capital of xenophobia.” And if the immigration law scared away a manufacturer like Mercedes, which employs about 2,800 Alabamians, or Hyundai, which announced an expansion at its Montgomery, Alabama plant in May, would only compound the state’s economic woes.
So let's get a good chuckle and a few minutes of Schadenfreude out of this, and then get to work on not only reversing insane laws like HB56, but reforming immigration policy, so we can stop punishing those hard-working people who are making sure we have food on the table every day (and their children).
For a recap on the Farmworkers Reality Tour, check out these posts:
The Watsonville Files: Everyone is trapped in a vicious cycle of failed immigration and farm policy
Farmworkers Reality Tour: A Smack in the Face. - by Glen the Plumber
“President Obama, I want this country to be the leader in human rights legislation… again” - by remembrance
Wandering thru a Watsonville Migrant Camp (w/ Video) - by BentLiberal
Standing by MB with the most hated of this land (Part I) / (Part II) / (Part III). - by catilinus