Thread: Legislators divided over Alabama immigration law fix

Legislators divided over Alabama immigration law fix

By Dana Beyerle
Times Montgomery Bureau


Published: Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 6:01 a.m.

MONTGOMERY — Democratic state Sen. Billy Beasley seeks to repeal Alabama’s strict anti-immigration law next year, but Republicans including Gov. Robert Bentley want only to tweak it.

Attorney General Luther Strange has recommended more than tweaks to significant portions of the law that are being challenged in federal court and in the streets by pro-Latino, civil rights and civil liberties interest groups.

Strange’s proposed tweaks would give embattled Republican legislators cover to keep part of the law they passed this year while scrapping onerous, superfluous, redundant and probably illegal portions.

Beasley said the Senate’s 12 Democrats want to repeal the bill. In the Senate, at least 13 Republicans want to tweak it including its co-sponsor, Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston.

Bentley had asked Strange to suggest legal changes. On Friday, Bentley, House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, and Marsh said they will support unspecified revisions.

“We recognize that changes are needed to ensure that Alabama has not only the nation’s most effective law, but one that is fair and just, promotes economic growth, preserves jobs for those in Alabama legally and can be enforced effectively and without prejudice,â€

Republicans in Alabama: You are not getting a "black-eye". You don't need to change anything. What you need to do is just enforce your new law, apologize to those impacted by mistakes in interpretations, and give your law time to produce the sought and desired results. Americans in Alabama and everywhere else should not be educating illegal aliens, they should not be aiding farmers or anyone else to hire them, they should not be allowed illegal aliens to perform contracts or rent property or and immigrants and visitors should be roaming your state or any other state without their documents, etc. etc., etc., etc.

Stand by your bill, defend your new law, ignore the pro-illegal immigration movement, and get your citizens back to work in the spots now taken by illegal aliens.

So what if someone from Mercedes or Honda were stopped and arrested because they didn't have proper documents? Wouldn't they have been stopped and arrested for driving without a license before your immigration law passed? I would certainly think so. How many Americans have you stopped and arrested from out of state who didn't have a valid license or proper documents or who were drinking a beer or speeding? Come on. Get real.

Don't fall for this "black-eye" nonsense. You don't have a black eye, you have a good law that you need to defend, enforce and by doing so set an example for the rest of the country, because you also need to remember, "if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile, then your state, every job and dollar in it, and then our country."

Don't Give In.