Alabama Immigration Law: The Devastating Effect of HB 56 on the State and its Citizens
The new Alabama immigration law has had a devastating effect on the state.
The Alabama immigration law has been a burning issue since it was passed on June 9, 2011. Its full implementation in September made it the toughest and harshest anti-immigrant law in the nation today. It makes it a criminal offense to be without US citizenship status, requires police officers to check the documents of individuals they suspect of being illegal and arrest those who have no identification, empowers public schools to check the immigrant status of their students, annuls any legal agreement made with an illegal immigrant, and makes it a serious crime for illegal aliens to contact the services of a government body, even for basic water connection services.
It is one of today’s agonizing contradictions that at the same time Martin Luther King Jr. is being honored with a memorial in Washington, D.C., the state where he began to fight for civil rights is once again the focal point of dissension over racial injustice. The signing of Alabama’s anti-immigration law, HB 56, resorts to discrimination suggestive of the Jim Crow South.
2.5 % of Alabama’s population is not documented. Even now, exploitative corrections firms are waiting eagerly at the sidelines to take advantage of prejudice money as panic-stricken families are selling off their few possessions and leaving the state in a hurry.
The flight of undocumented Hispanic immigrants started immediately after a Birmingham federal judge sustained most of HB 56’s enforcement provisions. They left their completely furnished mobile homes behind which they sold for just a thousand dollars or maybe less. Some of the optimistic ones simply closed up their homes and left the keys with sympathetic neighbors or friends.
Cracking Down on the Family
Under Alabama’s draconian HB 56, undocumented parents are living in constant fear of being separated from their children. The state’s 28,000 citizen children are in danger of losing one or both parents. 15-year-old Jose Perez expressed his fear to CBS News correspondent Chip Reid that every time he leaves for school each morning, he asks himself whether his parents will still be there when he gets home.
“Is this the last time I see them? Is this it? And I can never really come to terms with that,” Perez said.
The basic fabric of Alabama’s society is being shredded to pieces as the threat of losing a parent is real and imminent. Brown-skinned people will be forcibly taken from their families when checked during routine stops and found without their documents in order.
Undocumented immigrant breadwinners will find it extremely difficult to provide for their children for fear that they will be questioned the moment they step outside their home to work. This will force U.S. citizen children to quit school and look for jobs to provide for their families. For these reasons, entire families are rooted out and forced to leave the state.
Alabama’s new law has brought about financial difficulties and terrible anguish to thousands of immigrant families. The loss of a breadwinner and the threat of being forced out of their homes have traumatized a lot of children. Without warning, hardworking residents can be thrown into jail just on the basis of the color of their skin. As if these weren’t enough, U.S. citizen children will be considered “in danger” by state agencies and will be forced to live in foster homes.
Weakening the Rule of Law
The provisions of Alabama’s HB 56 immigration law carries far-reaching consequences that will not only adversely affect illegal immigrants, but legal citizens as well. Ironically, while trying to enforce its immigration laws, the state is creating an environment where the rule of law is severely undermined.
HB 56 requires all Alabama residents to present their legal documents for every transaction with a state entity. This means that every individual needs to show proof of their legality to accomplish even the most basic of daily tasks such as applying for a library card.
Sales contracts can not be enforceable. Selling something to an undocumented individual can invalidate the contract. If the person doesn’t pay or if the vendor fails to deliver the merchandise, both cannot seek protection in the rule of law, which no longer exists in the market place.
The confidentiality between attorney and client will be treated as a crime. Lawyers can be charged for refusing to disclose information about their client to immigration enforcement officers. These provisions stamp out attorney-client privilege, a cornerstone of fair legal representation. Lawyers who adopt the new law can be disbarred for violating state bare ethic rules, a classic case of Catch-22.
Unscrupulous employers who know the new provisions of HB 56 can take unfair advantage of illegal immigrant workers and refuse to pay them, or pay them below the agreed amount. An apartment owner cannot seek court action if an undocumented individual refuses to pay the rent. Likewise, if an undocumented person is locked out by the landlord even if their rent is paid, they cannot seek court protection to enforce the contract. The same cases also apply to real estate sales contracts.
All legal residents of Alabama are required to show proof of citizenship to avail of such basic services as water connection. All aspects of doing business within the state need to undergo these procedures, including getting a license or paying taxes. Kind-hearted people who employ, help, or harbor undocumented individuals will be apprehended and severely punished.
Alabama Immigration Law and Its Effect on Education
1.3 percent of children attending Alabama schools are not legal United States citizens. Since the enforcement of HB 56, these children are afraid to come to school, after having been the targets of bullying and harassment, and fearing that they will be forced to divulge the citizenship status of their parents. About 2,285 Hispanic students failed to attend classes on the start of the school week following the Birmingham judge’s upholding of key HB 56 provisions, which include those that instruct schools to look into the immigration status of their students.
At its peak, 15 percent or 5,143 children were absent and too afraid to come to school since the harsh immigration law was enforced. With Alabama schools facing critical budgetary challenges due to poor student results, schools will be financially hurt by losing a potential pool of educated individuals.
If HB 56 is allowed to stand, children without the required documentation will be denied admission to Alabama public schools. Schools will be transformed into immigration enforcement centers and educators into immigration agents.
The federal government has to step in to uphold the rights of children in a system where teacher/student relationship is being eroded and where the educational environment has turned into one of fear instead of safety.
Senator Gerald Dial of Alabama said he did vote for the passage of House Bill 56 since he doesn’t cherish the idea of “having illegal people here.” Dial also admitted that the law had some unforeseen repercussions.
“School teachers and administrators are not policemen, they need to be teaching,” Dial said.
How Community Safety is Compromised Under HB 56
Under Alabama’s new immigration law, meager state resources will be rerouted to handle immigration enforcement instead of catching dangerous criminals. Apart from their regular law enforcement work, police officers will also be forced to saddle the work of immigration agents, diverting them from their true line of work.
All service providers will become virtual immigration cops as their records can reveal who their undocumented subscribers are. These providers stand to lose a lot of business as they can’t provide even the most fundamental services like light and water to undocumented individuals.
Under HB 56, community safety and trust in authorities will be greatly compromised. More crimes will go unreported as many immigrants will refuse to surface for fear of being questioned about their citizenship status and detained if they fail to produce the necessary documents. Due to this, victims of crimes will not get the justice and protection they deserve, while criminal elements fearlessly roam the streets unmolested.
Workplaces will become less safe for immigrant women who can become vulnerable targets for unfair labor practices and harassment. Children will be harassed in school and, if taken into state custody, will be less safe in foster homes.
HB 56’s Impact on the Agricultural Sector
Just hours after Alabama’s immigration law was implemented, thousands of undocumented immigrant workers packed their things and hurriedly fled to other immigrant-friendly states. This has caused farmers to be left without any skilled workers during the peak time of harvest. Millions of dollars worth of crops all over the state were left rotting in the fields. Farmer Chad Smith estimates he lost around $300,000 due to lack of farm workers to harvest the crops. Many farmers in Alabama lost the needed capital to invest in next planting season’s seeds and crops.
In the backwash of the great immigrant exodus, the good news is Alabama’s tough immigration law has successfully generated plenty of jobs for its citizens. The bad news is, they’re the type of jobs Americans don’t want. Dirty jobs in the fields are available but Americans dislike doing dirty jobs. Why else would a lot of unemployed US citizens turn down work opportunities during the recession?
Farmers are unable to find local citizens to replace immigrant workers to harvest crops. Potato farmer Keith Smith, who tried to hire Americans, said that citizens aren’t as dedicated in the work as immigrants. Some Americans quit after one day. Smith said :
“I’ve had people calling me wanting to work,” Smith said. “I haven’t turned any of them down, but they’re not any good. It’s hard work, they just don’t work like the Hispanics with experience.”
Farmers are also saddled with the new cost of verifying the status of every immigrant they hire. What’s more, they cannot enter into contracts with undocumented workers, and transporting, harboring, or feeding workers will lay them open to felony convictions. With farmers having no access to legit immigrant labor force, the state’s agricultural sector will be dealt a paralyzing blow.
Damage to the State Economy
Immigrant workers have not only abandoned the farms, but other businesses where they are employed as well. Legal residents are leaving the state, fearing that immigration agents will swoop down on undocumented members of their family. Businesses are losing their workers and cannot survive without these labor forces.
Businesses are also losing their customer base as both legal and illegal immigrants flee from the state. Sales have sunk by 60 percent and continues to drop by the day. Tourism-related businesses have experienced decreased sales as they lose immigrant employees and as potential tourists cancel their vacation in Alabama. People of Hispanic descent have decided to call off their visit to Alabama for fear of being harassed and detained.
As immigrants move to other states, Alabama stands to lose an entire undocumented immigrant population who pays state and local taxes worth approximately $130 million annually. This comes in the wake of Jefferson County, Alabama’s most populous county, declaring its bankruptcy.
The state’s unfunded mandate will add new costs to the implementation of the new law, creating new economic losses for Alabama. Additional new funding will be required to train all law enforcement officials, to collect and report new data from public schools, and to cover the cost of additional work that every state, county, and municipal employees will perform to check the citizenship status of every immigrant availing basic services and interacting with government entities.
The costs of defending the legality of the new immigration law are considerably huge. Arizona spent the amount of $1.9 million in defending its stringent SB 1070 anti-immigration law. If just 10,000 illegal immigrants stopped reporting for work due to HB 56, Alabama’s economy will decrease by at least $40 million. To add to these figures, the government will need to allocate $2.8 billion should they push through with the plan to deport Alabama’s 120,000 illegal immigrants.
Speaking Up Against HB 56
To prevent the further spread of moral and economic damages brought about by HB 56, Alabama residents and national leaders have launched the “One Family, One Alabama” campaign for the repeal or complete overhaul of the draconian immigration law.
President Barack Obama expresses his opposition of the law by saying:
“It’s a bad law. The idea that we have children afraid to go to school, because they feel afraid that their immigration status will lead to being detained … it’s wrong.”
Sen. Gerald Dial who voted for the passage of HB 56 said:
“I think that [requiring schools to verify the status of students] was one of the worst things that was put in the bill. That may be a point of contention but I am for taking that out. Teachers and educators have enough to contend with today.”
“I made some mistakes in voting for the bill as it was, and I’m big enough to admit it.”
Proponents of the HB 56 should be happy with the new immigration law’s implementation, but they are not. While it has indeed succeeded in driving undocumented immigrants out of the state, the Alabama immigration law has also brought its moral, agricultural, legal, educational, law enforcement, and economic sectors down on their knees.
Filed Under: Alabama Immigration Laws
