THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS
By Kent Faulk
August 20, 2012
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/08/alabama_immigration_law_federa.html
A federal appeals court today blocked enforcement of a provision in Alabama's immigration law that requires schools to collect data about the immigration status of students.
But it let stand a few key provisions of the state law, including sections that allow law enforcement officers to ask about the immigration status of certain people suspected of criminal activity.
In its two rulings issued today, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals also affirmed some and reversed other lower court rulings in two lawsuits aimed at overturning Alabama's immigration law, known as HB56. The lawsuits were filed by the U.S. Justice Department and private plaintiffs, including the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama.
Appeals were filed by all sides after a district court blocked parts of the Alabama law from being enforced while the merits of the case are adjudicated. The 11th Circuit also later blocked a few other sections of that law. The Alabama Legislature also has amended or reworded some sections of the law.
The 11th Circuit in today's rulings states that the U.S. Justice Department, which had claimed the federal government should be the one to set immigration policy, is likely to succeed on certain challenges to the state law, but not on others.
Among its rulings, the appeals court ordered the district court to issue preliminary injunctions blocking a provision that would create a new state crime for an illegal immigrant's failure to carry an alien registration document. It also ordered the district court to issue an injunction blocking state courts from enforcing contracts with illegal immigrants.
It upheld the lower court's decision to temporarily allow police officers to detain people when they have reason to believe they are illegally in the country, and to give police 48 hours to determine whether a person caught driving without a license is legally in the country.
Both sides on the issues said they were pleased with today's ruling.
State officials said the core of Alabama's immigration law still stands after the ruling.
"While we are still reviewing today's ruling, we are pleased that the court recognized the validity of our arguments and upheld several provisions of Alabama's law," Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said.
Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that the appeals court ruling was not a perfect decision. "There are things we are definitely going to have to continue to fight about . But overall, I think it is very strong statement about the state's lack of power here. These are simply not the kind of provisions that they can pass. They can't have a deliberate strategy of creating their own immigration policy and trying to banish people from their state."
In its ruling in the HICA case, the appeals court reversed the district court's ruling that none of the HICA plaintiffs had standing to challenge requirements that schools collect immigrant status from students.
The appeals court concluded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the claim that the section on the school data collection violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. As a result, the appeals court sent that section back to the district court to issue a preliminary injunction.
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