The Birmingham News (Opinion): This is what happens when the Legislature and governor support a law that appeals more to ugly emotion than to simple logic.
To really get to most of Alabama's small undocumented worker/immigrant problem, the Legislature could have simply adopted E-Verify, the federal database that verifies immigrant status. Once the kinks in E-Verify are worked out, it'll be the way to go.
But in Alabama, simple and efficient are, well, like foreign people. We don't want them here. Except for their steel mills and auto manufacturing plants and rocket scientists. We don't want them picking our tomatoes and sweet potatoes or roofing our houses.
So the Alabama Legislature passes the now infamous immigration law, HB56, that is designed, as one of the co-sponsors said, to make the lives of undocumented workers uncomfortable in every area of life. Of course, it also makes life uncomfortable for legal immigrants and regular ol' U.S. citizens, too. So what! We've got to show the world how tough we are (as if the 1950s and 1960s didn't show the world enough already).
Slowly but surely, the law is being picked apart in court. A number of provisions were stopped by U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn. Then a three-judge panel with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta stayed another couple of provisions. Now, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Scott Vowell is declaring the provision dealing with contracts null and void.
Vowell, in a breach-of-contract dispute, said the entire contracts section of the immigration law may be unconstitutional, but "this Court does not have to consider that broader issue because this suit has been commenced before the (immigration) Act was passed."
The Alabama Constitution is pretty clear on contracts. The section cited by Vowell says, in very understandable language: "There can be no law of this state impairing the obligation of contracts by destroying or impairing the remedy for their enforcement; and the legislature shall have no power to revive any right or remedy which may have become barred by lapse of time, or by any statute of this state. After any suit has been commenced on any cause of action, the legislature shall have no power to take away such cause of action, or destroy any existing defense to such suit."
The defendants in the lawsuit Vowell was hearing claimed the plaintiffs were "illegal residents" and that the action for breach of contract is barred by the immigration law. Vowell said uh-uh. The Alabama constitution says the immigration law not only can't stop contracts in force before the immigration law was passed, but the whole contracts provision might be unconstitutional.
This is what happens when the Legislature passes cruddy, hot-button, knee-jerk bills instead of doing a little homework to realize what's going to work best and make that the law. For too many of our leaders, being self-righteously mean is much more fun.
We know the law encourages profiling. We know it has caused problems in the farming and construction industries. We know it takes waiting in long lines for hours to renew a car tag. We know it's splitting up families and causing even legal immigrants to flee Alabama because they don't want to be harassed. Because of this law, even to check out a book at a Shelby County public library, a patron must prove his citizenship.
The immigration law is a bust. A good Legislature would realize its mistake and make it right. I'm not going to hold my breath; it's pretty clear on this issue what kind of Legislature we have.
To really get to most of Alabama's small undocumented worker/immigrant problem, the Legislature could have simply adopted E-Verify, the federal database that verifies immigrant status. Once the kinks in E-Verify are worked out, it'll be the way to go.
But in Alabama, simple and efficient are, well, like foreign people. We don't want them here. Except for their steel mills and auto manufacturing plants and rocket scientists. We don't want them picking our tomatoes and sweet potatoes or roofing our houses.
So the Alabama Legislature passes the now infamous immigration law, HB56, that is designed, as one of the co-sponsors said, to make the lives of undocumented workers uncomfortable in every area of life. Of course, it also makes life uncomfortable for legal immigrants and regular ol' U.S. citizens, too. So what! We've got to show the world how tough we are (as if the 1950s and 1960s didn't show the world enough already).
Slowly but surely, the law is being picked apart in court. A number of provisions were stopped by U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn. Then a three-judge panel with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta stayed another couple of provisions. Now, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Scott Vowell is declaring the provision dealing with contracts null and void.
Vowell, in a breach-of-contract dispute, said the entire contracts section of the immigration law may be unconstitutional, but "this Court does not have to consider that broader issue because this suit has been commenced before the (immigration) Act was passed."
The Alabama Constitution is pretty clear on contracts. The section cited by Vowell says, in very understandable language: "There can be no law of this state impairing the obligation of contracts by destroying or impairing the remedy for their enforcement; and the legislature shall have no power to revive any right or remedy which may have become barred by lapse of time, or by any statute of this state. After any suit has been commenced on any cause of action, the legislature shall have no power to take away such cause of action, or destroy any existing defense to such suit."
The defendants in the lawsuit Vowell was hearing claimed the plaintiffs were "illegal residents" and that the action for breach of contract is barred by the immigration law. Vowell said uh-uh. The Alabama constitution says the immigration law not only can't stop contracts in force before the immigration law was passed, but the whole contracts provision might be unconstitutional.
This is what happens when the Legislature passes cruddy, hot-button, knee-jerk bills instead of doing a little homework to realize what's going to work best and make that the law. For too many of our leaders, being self-righteously mean is much more fun.
We know the law encourages profiling. We know it has caused problems in the farming and construction industries. We know it takes waiting in long lines for hours to renew a car tag. We know it's splitting up families and causing even legal immigrants to flee Alabama because they don't want to be harassed. Because of this law, even to check out a book at a Shelby County public library, a patron must prove his citizenship.
The immigration law is a bust. A good Legislature would realize its mistake and make it right. I'm not going to hold my breath; it's pretty clear on this issue what kind of Legislature we have.
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