Lost in the raw spectacle of Donald Trump's
xenophobia-riddled Alabama appearance: Alabama, the state, has already had a very real go-round with the sort of hard-right anti-immigrant proposals that Trump has made the cornerstone of his impromptu presidential bid. In 2011 the Republican-led state passed an Arizona-style law allowing police, school administrators and other government agents to demand proof of citizenship, but also making it illegal to rent property to, "transport", or employ undocumented immigrants.
The results, for the state, were dismal:
The backlash was massive — a legal assault that chipped away at the law, and a political campaign that made Republicans own its consequences. Business groups blamed the tough measures for scaring away capital and for an exodus of workers that hurt the state’s agriculture industry. After Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election, strategists in his own party blamed his support for the Alabama attrition policy. Those critics included Donald Trump. [...]
Asked about the law, Alabama voters rarely say that it worked. Large farms spent millions training new workers. The Byrds conceded that the agriculture sector suffered after some immigrants fled the state. “Most of them left and didn’t come back,” said Terry Darring-Rogers, who works at a Mobile law firm specializing in immigration.
Perhaps the most prominent incidents provoked by the new law was the November 2011 arrest of a German Mercedes-Benz executive who could not prove his legal status during a routine traffic stop, followed soon afterwards by the arrest of a Japanese Honda worker for the same reason—awkward international moments that threatened Alabama's desperate efforts to promote automotive plant jobs in the state. More critically for other state residents, the provisions of the law roiled church social services, fouled state offices, threatened the availability of basic utilities, and caused state Hispanic communities
to pull back from reporting crimes, testifying as witnesses, or enrolling their children in school.
While the restrictions eased over time, the initial passage of the law caused enough hardship to scar the immigrant community. Many recalled police roadblocks around their neighborhoods and said they adjusted their schedules to avoid unnecessary car trips. Some reported verbal abuse from strangers telling them to go home to Mexico. Longtime residents deferred opportunities for fear of the new law’s consequences.
“My daughter’s American and she had a scholarship to go to a state university, but we couldn’t let her go and she lost it,” said Rebecca Maciel, who moved to Alabama 17 years ago with her husband. “If they picked us up who would take care of her siblings?”
Though most of the law is now widely regarded as fiasco, supporters of the 2011 law remain mostly undaunted—and remain resentful of the federal Justice Department for blocking key provisions of the law that would have made it more draconian still. They're now looking for support from the same person who once called those Romney-era strategies for encouraging "self-deportation" "crazy" and "maniacal", but who now touts a plan to escalate those same policies
into a full national purge of undocumented residents and their children.
“We could tell him a hundred of the things that went wrong in Alabama, and he wouldn’t listen,” said Frank Barragan, Mobile’s regional organizer in the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice. “But our biggest concern is not really Donald Trump. Our concern is that the other candidates are jumping on that bandwagon.”
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2006—Is You Is, Mister Bush? Or Is You Ain't?:
Could you just tell me now, please? Are you going to blow up Iran? If so, are you going to do it before November 7?
Or not?
Are you waking up and staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night agonizing? Or are you sleeping straight through as a result of having already decided one way or the other? Because, frankly, sir, I'm tossing and turning. A couple of nights ago, I lay in a cold sweat, thinking about you and what you're thinking about Iran. So, tell me already. Is you is? Or is you ain't?
There's this fellow named Atrios who also says he "...can't really figure out what the administration is doing with Iran. Maybe there's a master plan, maybe the crazies are all fighting for control in the background, maybe there's nothing going on."
Short of telling me directly, I don't suppose you'd give me Judith Miller's old security clearance so I can poke around on my own? Better yet, forget the security clearance and just have Dick Cheney perform his instant declassification magic? (No forgeries, please.)
Look, there's no need to soften me up with your lame-ass propaganda. What I want to know is, are you tapping your foot to the drumbeat that Bill Kristol and Newt Gingrich and Walter Williams are pounding out? Are you nodding your head and saying "yup" whenever Cheney opens his mouth about Iran? Are you thinking about putting the jumpsuit on again? Have you made up your mind to turn the jingo talk into the jingo walk?
Tweet of the Day
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show,
David Waldman,
Greg Dworkin,
Armando &
Joan McCarter try to make sense of the world. Man uses efficient, convenient, cheap & easy method of getting attention, the tragedy magnified by its predictability. Greg helps pull us all back together with a look at today's issues: Trump deports his first “Mexican," but turns out he’s American. Over 40 million listeners discover Trump is awful. Armando takes
WaPo writer to task. Can Trump break the grip of history? Do rules even apply to him? Joan describes end-to-end GOP-manufactured crises - next up: Planned Parenthood. Who’s the biggest loony? David & Joan pick Tom over Ted.
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