Monday, December 19, 2011
Mission Alabama: Popular support
In June, Alabama passed America's harshest anti-undocumented immigrant (and generally anti-immigrant) law, and most parts were upheld in September by Federal District Court Judge Blackburn. This law forces schools to ask enrolling students about their immigration status, makes it illegal to help any undocumented immigrant with a ride, disbars any (existing) property ownership by undocumented immigrants, makes getting flu shots and getting garbage picked up difficult, and allows police to ask for proof of immigration status when there is "reasonable suspicion" the person is here illegally.
This law has already had a deep destabilizing effect on immigrant communities. Kids stopped going to school for fear of deportation. Some residents left their property in the hands of neighbors and friends. A judge last week postponed a provision that required mobile home residents to show immigration status for registration.
Who is for and who is against this type of anti-family and anti-child policy?
Who supports this hateful, discriminatory law? For the first time in 136 years, both houses of the Alabama legislature turned Republican, who quickly got to work and passed the most anti-immigrant law in the country. And after running with a tough anti-undocumented migrant stance, the Republican governor signed this law. People like this professor of law think it is "permissible and sensible" to collect stats on and criminalize families. And the president of an organization of judges estimates 80% of the state supports the law.
So families are under attack in Alabama! Who supports them? The bishops, the ACLU, the NAACP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Justice Department has appealed to protect Congress' full powers to pass legislation on immigration matters.
In Montgomery, Alabama, a rally took place on Saturday, with the CEO of the NAACP and a few other national figures. Most of the figures put the protesters in the hundreds. A heinous policy gets passed, and a rally with national-level organizers gets only hundreds???
Yesterday afternoon, a low-level rally of maybe a thousand supporters of undocumented rights rallied through the streets of East Paris. After the rally, I discussed the American undocumented situation with a group of undocumented youth here yesterday, and they asked about the impact of American religiosity. Where are all the religious people to stand up for families?
Good question.
This law has already had a deep destabilizing effect on immigrant communities. Kids stopped going to school for fear of deportation. Some residents left their property in the hands of neighbors and friends. A judge last week postponed a provision that required mobile home residents to show immigration status for registration. Who is for and who is against this type of anti-family and anti-child policy?
Who supports this hateful, discriminatory law? For the first time in 136 years, both houses of the Alabama legislature turned Republican, who quickly got to work and passed the most anti-immigrant law in the country. And after running with a tough anti-undocumented migrant stance, the Republican governor signed this law. People like this professor of law think it is "permissible and sensible" to collect stats on and criminalize families. And the president of an organization of judges estimates 80% of the state supports the law.
So families are under attack in Alabama! Who supports them? The bishops, the ACLU, the NAACP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Justice Department has appealed to protect Congress' full powers to pass legislation on immigration matters.
In Montgomery, Alabama, a rally took place on Saturday, with the CEO of the NAACP and a few other national figures. Most of the figures put the protesters in the hundreds. A heinous policy gets passed, and a rally with national-level organizers gets only hundreds???
Yesterday afternoon, a low-level rally of maybe a thousand supporters of undocumented rights rallied through the streets of East Paris. After the rally, I discussed the American undocumented situation with a group of undocumented youth here yesterday, and they asked about the impact of American religiosity. Where are all the religious people to stand up for families?
Good question.
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