Advertisement

Groups sue to block Ala. immigration law

MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 8 (UPI) -- Two civil rights groups filed a lawsuit to block Alabama's new immigration law Friday, arguing it "revisits the state's painful racist past."

The lawsuit, filed in federal court by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, said the law unlawfully claims federal immigration authority for the state, violates the Fourth Amendment's search-and-seizure provisions, deters immigrants from enrolling their children in public schools and unlawfully forbids legal immigrants from attending state colleges and universities.

Advertisement

"Alabama's immigration law is blatantly unconstitutional," said Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center. "This law revisits the state's painful racial past and tramples the rights of all Alabama residents. It should never become the law of the land."

The Alabama law, which goes into effect Sept. 1, is considered the toughest immigration bill to pass a state house after Arizona's bill in April 2010.

Among other things, the Alabama bill makes it a crime for an undocumented immigrant to apply for a job, for a person to "conceal, harbor or shield" an illegal immigrant or transport an illegal immigrant if the transporter knows the immigrant is undocumented, Politico said.

Advertisement

As with legislation passed in Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina and elsewhere, the Alabama law requires law enforcement officers to check documentation of people they suspect may be in the country illegally.

However, Alabama's also requires public schools to examine the immigration status of students.

Latest Headlines