San Francisco Chronicle (Opinion by Ruben Navarette): This is how bad it has gotten in Alabama:
A Mexican consulate official in Washington who is monitoring the fallout from the state's tough new immigration law told me recently that, as school administrators were initially trying to determine the legal status of students, some principals were going into elementary-school classes and telling kids: "Raise your hand if you weren't born in the United States." Imagine a 6-year-old sitting there - unsure of whether to raise his hand because he's afraid his mother and father might get deported.
What is happening to my country? I was born here, as were my parents and three of my grandparents. Yet, sometimes, I hardly recognize the place.
This is one of those times. As they shape their immigration policies, the states are in a race to the bottom. Rather than challenge each other to create jobs or manufacture goods or improve the schools, they're competing to see which one can be the cruelest to illegal immigrants.
We have a winner: Alabama. And, the trophy goes to a state that should have learned five decades ago that hatred and intolerance are cancerous. The state is picking on a new group of defenseless victims.
Last year, when Arizona passed a tough immigration law, I wrote that it was the new Mississippi. Now, Alabama is the new Alabama.
In the past 10 years, Latino immigrants have migrated to cities such as Mobile, Birmingham and Montgomery. Their optimism and hard work were welcomed until some people realized that these arrivals weren't merely changing beds or diapers but also changing the cultural and demographic landscape of the state. Then fear took hold.
The message became: "Gracias for waiting on our tables, building our homes, cutting our lawns, cleaning our hotel rooms and raising our kids. Now, adios!"
The Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature approved - and Republican Gov. Robert Bentley signed - what is believed to be the toughest immigration law in the country. The measure mandates, among other things, that school officials inquire as to students' immigration status and allows authorities to charge with a misdemeanor immigrants caught without documents that prove they're in the country legally. It also requires local and state police to check people's immigration status during traffic stops and makes it a felony for illegal immigrants to apply for a driver's license or business license.
The law was challenged by the Justice Department. Last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down parts of it but let stand other portions. School officials cannot inquire as to the immigration status of students, the court said, but local and state police can check the immigration status of motorists during traffic stops.
My friends on the left naturally blame this debacle on the Republicans who control the political system in Alabama - but they're seeing only part of the picture. In politics, nothing gets this bad unless both parties are working together.
Why didn't Democrats in Alabama put up more of a fight to stop the law? Two reasons: They're afraid of being perceived as soft on illegal immigrants; and much of the Democratic base is opposed to illegal immigration because it worries about foreign workers taking blue-collar jobs from Americans.
Then there's the national scene. In a disturbing alliance, the Alabama Republicans who enacted this law have a willing accomplice in the Obama administration, which wants to increase its deportation numbers just in time to court suburban white voters who are frightened down to their knickers over the Latinization of America. Here's the plan: Local police in Alabama round up illegal immigrants, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes the catch of the day off the hands of the local authorities.
Then what happens? Nothing good. Recently, PBS' "Frontline" aired "Lost in Detention," a program detailing alleged abuses resulting from the Obama administration's hyper-aggressive immigration-enforcement policy. The alleged abuses include alleged violations of due process, accusations of sexual assault and other horror stories.
President Obama's immigration policy is not only heinous but hypocritical. While the Justice Department scolds Alabama for encroaching on federal authority by enforcing immigration law, the Homeland Security Department scoops up the bounty. What message does this send Alabama and other states that are thinking about going rogue?
Simply this: "Keep up the good work."
A Mexican consulate official in Washington who is monitoring the fallout from the state's tough new immigration law told me recently that, as school administrators were initially trying to determine the legal status of students, some principals were going into elementary-school classes and telling kids: "Raise your hand if you weren't born in the United States." Imagine a 6-year-old sitting there - unsure of whether to raise his hand because he's afraid his mother and father might get deported.
What is happening to my country? I was born here, as were my parents and three of my grandparents. Yet, sometimes, I hardly recognize the place.
This is one of those times. As they shape their immigration policies, the states are in a race to the bottom. Rather than challenge each other to create jobs or manufacture goods or improve the schools, they're competing to see which one can be the cruelest to illegal immigrants.
We have a winner: Alabama. And, the trophy goes to a state that should have learned five decades ago that hatred and intolerance are cancerous. The state is picking on a new group of defenseless victims.
Last year, when Arizona passed a tough immigration law, I wrote that it was the new Mississippi. Now, Alabama is the new Alabama.
In the past 10 years, Latino immigrants have migrated to cities such as Mobile, Birmingham and Montgomery. Their optimism and hard work were welcomed until some people realized that these arrivals weren't merely changing beds or diapers but also changing the cultural and demographic landscape of the state. Then fear took hold.
The message became: "Gracias for waiting on our tables, building our homes, cutting our lawns, cleaning our hotel rooms and raising our kids. Now, adios!"
The Republican-controlled Alabama Legislature approved - and Republican Gov. Robert Bentley signed - what is believed to be the toughest immigration law in the country. The measure mandates, among other things, that school officials inquire as to students' immigration status and allows authorities to charge with a misdemeanor immigrants caught without documents that prove they're in the country legally. It also requires local and state police to check people's immigration status during traffic stops and makes it a felony for illegal immigrants to apply for a driver's license or business license.
The law was challenged by the Justice Department. Last week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down parts of it but let stand other portions. School officials cannot inquire as to the immigration status of students, the court said, but local and state police can check the immigration status of motorists during traffic stops.
My friends on the left naturally blame this debacle on the Republicans who control the political system in Alabama - but they're seeing only part of the picture. In politics, nothing gets this bad unless both parties are working together.
Why didn't Democrats in Alabama put up more of a fight to stop the law? Two reasons: They're afraid of being perceived as soft on illegal immigrants; and much of the Democratic base is opposed to illegal immigration because it worries about foreign workers taking blue-collar jobs from Americans.
Then there's the national scene. In a disturbing alliance, the Alabama Republicans who enacted this law have a willing accomplice in the Obama administration, which wants to increase its deportation numbers just in time to court suburban white voters who are frightened down to their knickers over the Latinization of America. Here's the plan: Local police in Alabama round up illegal immigrants, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement takes the catch of the day off the hands of the local authorities.
Then what happens? Nothing good. Recently, PBS' "Frontline" aired "Lost in Detention," a program detailing alleged abuses resulting from the Obama administration's hyper-aggressive immigration-enforcement policy. The alleged abuses include alleged violations of due process, accusations of sexual assault and other horror stories.
President Obama's immigration policy is not only heinous but hypocritical. While the Justice Department scolds Alabama for encroaching on federal authority by enforcing immigration law, the Homeland Security Department scoops up the bounty. What message does this send Alabama and other states that are thinking about going rogue?
Simply this: "Keep up the good work."
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