The Huntsville Times reported that: The debate over Alabama's new get-tough immigration law shifted from the courtroom to Huntsville's SpringHill Suites hotel today.
The "Transformative Justice Conference on Immigration Challenges" drew about 100 people, including leaders of Huntsville's Hispanic community, a local minister who has made a documentary film about the plight of illegal immigrants dying in the Arizona desert, and a former deputy commissioner of the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Services.
While the event was aimed at fostering a better understanding about broad immigration issues, talk naturally centered on Alabama's immigration law, HB 56.
On Sept. 28, a federal judge in Birmingham refused to block much of the far-reaching law from going into effect.
Among other things, the state law authorizes police to check immigration status during traffic stops, criminalizes the lack of documents proving legal immigration status, bars illegal immigrants from entering into contracts and bars undocumented immigrants from transacting business with state and local government.
A director of Oakwood University's Department of Social Work who attended the conference said she has heard about store clerks in Huntsville now asking to see Hispanic shoppers' Social Security cards.
Zayne Smith, immigration policy fellow with the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, said more than 1,000 people have called a Southern Poverty Law Center hotline to report issues with the new law.
"We warned over and over to our lawmakers what impact this legislation would have," Smith said.
The conference began with a screening of Ellin Jimmerson's documentary film, "The Second Cooler/La Segunda Nevera."
The film points the finger at the North American Free Trade Agreement for the surge in illegal immigration and creation of a "brutal, militarized border."
According to Jimmerson, more people have died attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border since 1997 than were killed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina combined.
The film title refers to a second body cooler that the Tucson, Ariz., morgue had to install to hold the remains of border casualties.
Jimmerson, an ordained minister at Weatherly Heights Baptist Church, intends to produce a feature-length version of the documentary after raising $11,000 for liability insurance.
A woman in the crowd pledged $1,000 to help Jimmerson's cause.
Jimmerson is among a group of 36 plaintiffs, including the U.S. Department of Justice, appealing District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn's immigration law ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
"I'm totally opposed to HB 56," she said in response to an audience question. "Everything that's in it."
The immigration conference was sponsored by the International Services Council of Alabama, the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation and the city's Hispanic Latino Advisory Committee.
The "Transformative Justice Conference on Immigration Challenges" drew about 100 people, including leaders of Huntsville's Hispanic community, a local minister who has made a documentary film about the plight of illegal immigrants dying in the Arizona desert, and a former deputy commissioner of the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Services.
While the event was aimed at fostering a better understanding about broad immigration issues, talk naturally centered on Alabama's immigration law, HB 56.
On Sept. 28, a federal judge in Birmingham refused to block much of the far-reaching law from going into effect.
Among other things, the state law authorizes police to check immigration status during traffic stops, criminalizes the lack of documents proving legal immigration status, bars illegal immigrants from entering into contracts and bars undocumented immigrants from transacting business with state and local government.
A director of Oakwood University's Department of Social Work who attended the conference said she has heard about store clerks in Huntsville now asking to see Hispanic shoppers' Social Security cards.
Zayne Smith, immigration policy fellow with the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, said more than 1,000 people have called a Southern Poverty Law Center hotline to report issues with the new law.
"We warned over and over to our lawmakers what impact this legislation would have," Smith said.
The conference began with a screening of Ellin Jimmerson's documentary film, "The Second Cooler/La Segunda Nevera."
The film points the finger at the North American Free Trade Agreement for the surge in illegal immigration and creation of a "brutal, militarized border."
According to Jimmerson, more people have died attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border since 1997 than were killed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina combined.
The film title refers to a second body cooler that the Tucson, Ariz., morgue had to install to hold the remains of border casualties.
Jimmerson, an ordained minister at Weatherly Heights Baptist Church, intends to produce a feature-length version of the documentary after raising $11,000 for liability insurance.
A woman in the crowd pledged $1,000 to help Jimmerson's cause.
Jimmerson is among a group of 36 plaintiffs, including the U.S. Department of Justice, appealing District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn's immigration law ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
"I'm totally opposed to HB 56," she said in response to an audience question. "Everything that's in it."
The immigration conference was sponsored by the International Services Council of Alabama, the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation and the city's Hispanic Latino Advisory Committee.
No comments:
Post a Comment