Thread: State Sen. Scott Beason responds to DHS Secretary Janet Napo

State Sen. Scott Beason responds to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on immigration policy

The Birmingham News
By Mary Orndorff
Thursday, October 27, 2011, 9:24 AM
Updated: Thursday, October 27, 2011, 10:01 AM

WASHINGTON - A key architect of Alabama's immigration law said this morning that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's policy against helping the state enforce it will not diminish the law's effectiveness.

State Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, said the law was intended to push illegal immigrants out of Alabama, not necessarily deport them from the United States, which is a function of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that Napolitano oversees. Beason said her testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday was not a surprise and that the Alabama law was never intended to be a big referral service to ICE for deportation.

"We said at the beginning, we didn't think there would be huge numbers of people arrested or a mass filling of jails," Beason said.

Instead, Beason said, the sections of the state law barring people from conducting business with undocumented immigrants are having the intended effect: self-deportation out of Alabama, for which ICE is not needed.

"It takes away the attractiveness and the things that draw an illegal workforce and it's beginning to have a reduction in the number of people coming here," Beason said. "It was not designed to go out and arrest tremendous numbers of people. Most folks in the state illegally will self-deport and move to states that are supportive of large numbers of illegals coming to their state. We were not putting together a deportation scheme."

Napolitano told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that her agency is not helping enforce the Alabama law but is instead working with the U.S. Justice Department in its legal challenge to the law.

http://blog.al.com/sweethome/2011/10/up ... eason.html

Related:

Alabama Immigration Law Not Getting Support From Federal Government

Posted: 10/26/11 03:45 PM ET By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-253762.html

Added to Homepage with amended title:
http://www.alipac.us/article-6712--0-0.html