Democrat Lawmaker Wants to Repeal Immigration Law
By Morgan Hightower
State Senator Billy Beasley, a Democrat from Barbour County, plans to introduce a bill in the legislature to repeal Alabama’s immigration law.

“The immigration bill passed in the regular session is not good for Alabama citizens. This issue is one that should be handled by the Federal government and not by individual states. While the border between Mexico and the United States should be secured, a path for citizenship must also be provided for those Mexicans in this country without proper entry.

“It is wrong for public officials to demagogue this matter and to play political games with a most sensitive issue. The economic cost of this ill-advised bill will be huge. It will require the State of Alabama, as well as local governments, to spend millions of dollars to enforce provisions of the law. This comes at a time when we simply cannot afford it. There are also many Alabama businesses who hire Mexican workers and the new law is already hurting them badly I am told.

“I will pre-file a bill to repeal the Alabama immigration law and hope the GOP leadership will support it. In the event they won’t, I will ask them at least to allow reasonable debate on the bill when it comes to the floor for a vote. Unfortunately, that was not done on many serious matters during the recently completed regular session.â€