A report generated by the number of calls to a hotline hosted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, was released by the National Immigration Law Center, listing complaints of bullying, discrimination, and racial profiling in Alabama. The report, Alabama’s Shame: HB56 and the War on Immigrants, lists more than 6,000 calls over the past 10 months.
Alabama’s immigration law, HB 56, instructs law officers to check an individual’s immigration status if the officer cites a “reasonable suspicion” that the detained person is not a legal immigrant. Unfortunately, a number of Latino residents of Alabama have found that HB 56 has given some people carte blanche to question them, and in some cases, behave discriminatorily toward them.
“Scores of Latinos called to report that they suspected they had been stopped by police, after the HB 56 provisions became enforceable, mainly because they look Latino — so that officers could question them about their immigration status,” states the report.
Included are stories such a couple who called police to report damage to a building they rent, and being questioned about their immigration status, and a man and two coworkers being stopped by police officers while walking and being asked to show papers, with no additional reason for being detained. Additionally, some complaints tell of children being taunted in school, and requests for proof of legal citizenship while purchasing retail items.
Opponents of HB 56 were concerned that such a provision could incite xenophobia. “The people in this report are the mothers, fathers and children living under a law that has given a nod and a wink to the worst prejudices harbored by some residents,” said author of the report and SPLC Legal Director Mary Bauer. “If lawmakers are unwilling to repeal HB 56 – knowing this is the type of misery they have created – we can only assume they intended to inflict this cruelty all along.”
According to the AFL-CIO, HB 56 has negatively impacted Latina women in particular, compounding the issues of domestic abuse by applying a chilling factor to asking for help or seeking refuge. A female victim of domestic violence went to the courthouse, according to their report, to seek a “protection from abuse”, but was asked about her legal status and was informed by a clerk that she would be reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Backers of HB 56 have stated that its purpose is to ensure that individuals who work and reside in Alabama do so legally. According to The Southern law Poverty Center, undocumented immigrants comprise just 2.5 percent of the population.
A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled web site at https://www.visatous.com.
In July, a self-proclaimed “immigration enforcement activist” D.A. King filed a complaint with the Georgia Immigration Enforcement Review Board regarding the immigration status of workers. King has accused more than 1,200 different government agencies in Georgia of not adequately providing information regarding House Bill 87, which requires government entities employing two or more people to annually file a report on each employee’s legal status.
King has cited a local convention and visitors’ bureau, a downtown development authority, waste management and others, though the actual number of potential cases is unclear as many agencies include volunteer boards with no “employed” staff, which makes them exemptions to the law. King has filed additional complaints with the state Department of Community Affairs, concerned with what he sees as non-compliance with the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, a database for public benefit applicants. How many other states are not reporting on the legal status of each and every employee is unknown, as there is no national database.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals released its ruling upholding their version of the “show me your papers” provision, allowing law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of people otherwise detained if they fail to show proper identification. This decision follows a similar law in Arizona recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Complicating matters is Georgia’s Attorney General, Sam Olens, who stated that immigrants covered as part of The DREAM Act will be eligible for driver’s licenses, if they can provide proof of DACA. However, these individuals will not be issued state identification cards, as they are considered “public benefits,” and as such, are not covered. Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer, on the other hand, has ordered state officials to not to provide driver’s licenses to immigrants with “deferred status.”
“A lot of these issues are in uncharted waters. In this particular area, which is how do you treat people that are deferred action, there’s very little legal precedent to go by,” Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute’s office at the New York University School of Law, told CNN. “States are making their own judgments.”
Nebraska and Texas also are not issuing licenses, which they consider a public benefit, stated Gov. Dave Heineman, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry stated that DACA “does not undermine or change our state laws,” and said in a letter to his state’s attorney general that the federal guidelines “confer absolutely no legal status whatsoever” to any immigrant. California and Oregon, however, are looking at granting licenses.
“We’re still trying to sort out what this new limbo category means for states,” said Ann Morse, program director of the Immigrant Policy Project at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
A. Banerjee is a Houston immigration lawyer in Texas. Before selecting an immigration lawyer in Houston Texas, contact the Law Offices of Annie Banerjee by visiting their information filled web site at https://www.visatous.com.