Thread: Alabama Counties Ordered by State to Stop Demanding Proof of

Alabama Counties Ordered by State to Stop Demanding Proof of Citizenship

bloomberg.com/news
By Margaret Newkirk -
Dec 2, 2011 6:29 PM ET

Alabama county offices should stop demanding proof of citizenship from drivers who want to renew car tags or people registering mobile homes, the state revenue commissioner has ordered.

“Under no circumstances is a state or county official or employee to make a determination as to whether an alien is lawfully present in the United States,â€

Alabama AG's office: Cities should only use federal database to check immigration status

The Huntsville Times
By Steve Doyle,
Thursday, December 01, 2011, 11:21 PM

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- An opinion issued by the Alabama Attorney General's Office late Thursday appears to have broad implications for how cities enforce the state's controversial immigration law.

The guidance letter from Attorney General Luther Strange says cities and counties "cannot implement" sections of the law that require immigration status checks until they are enrolled in the U.S. Customs and Immigration Service's SAVE program.

Huntsville and Madison County have both applied for permission to join the federal database but have not been approved. SAVE -- short for Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements -- confirms a person's lawful status through a quick computer check.

City Attorney Peter Joffrion said Strange's opinion "seems to halt the whole process of verification" until Huntsville is enrolled in the database.

The city applied to join SAVE shortly after U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn's Sept. 28 ruling upholding much of the state's far-reaching immigration law.

Mayor Tommy Battle said enrolling in the program is "very onerous," and he was not sure Thursday night how much longer it would take.

"This seems to mean that you treat (immigrants) like everybody else until you get in the SAVE system," Battle said, "then you let the system tell you" whether they are in the country legally.

Cities and counties across the state have struggled since Blackburn's ruling to decide what documents a person needs to prove their legal status.

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/12/ala ... _shou.html