The Birminghan News (Editorial): Gov. Robert Bentley could have brought more decency and reason into the debate over Alabama's toughest-in-the-nation immigration law.
Instead, when HB56 passed the Republican-controlled Legislature in June, he was a strong supporter, proud of the law's unprecedented reach.
"I campaigned for the toughest immigration laws, and I'm proud of the Legislature for working tirelessly to create the strongest immigration bill in the country," Bentley said in early June after signing the bill into law.
Bentley maintained his rhetoric -- even as the federal courts picked the law apart -- but now the governor no longer wants to be out front on talking about the immigration law.
"I don't want to be perceived as the face of illegal immigration bills in the country, and I could be that," Bentley told The Associated Press last week.
That's too bad. Bentley, as the governor who enthusiastically signed and defended the law, is forever tied to it.
Bentley could have advised lawmakers to be less heavy-handed and take a more reasonable approach to tackling Alabama's relatively modest undocumented immigrant problem. He didn't.
As it stands, the law inconveniences legal immigrants and U.S. citizens as well as targeting undocumented individuals. The law encourages profiling based simply on how somebody looks and sounds. The law has left many of the state's farmers with crops in fields, waiting for harvest, but very few willing to do the hard work.
E-Verify, the federal system of identifying legal immigrants, should be all Alabama (or any state) needs to make sure undocumented workers aren't being hired. While the system still has some problems to be worked out, the U.S. Supreme Court has given E-Verify its blessing.
Instead, the Legislature and Bentley were determined to show just how tough Alabama could be. That kind of overreaction is part of the state's sad history and culture.
Bentley told The AP he doesn't "want to add fuel to the fire across the country where people continue to look at Alabama in a negative light. It's going to take us a long time to outlive those stereotypes that are out there among people that Alabama is living in the '50s and '60s."
Well, yes, as long as Alabama's leaders continue to make serious missteps. Just since 2000, we've had a chief justice who refused to remove a statue of the Ten Commandments from the state judicial building, despite a federal order, and had to be removed from office. Before the immigration bill passed, Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, one of its co-sponsors, told a Cullman County Republican group that on immigration, "empty the clip, and do what has to be done."
Beason argued that comment was taken out of context, but what about a comment during the bribes-for-bingo case where he used racially insensitive comments recorded on a wire he was wearing for the FBI? Beason later apologized, but the repeated damage has been done.
The reality is that Alabama has earned its reputation for intolerance. Bentley could have made a difference, but he chose not to. As recently as Oct. 14, after a three-judge panel with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped enforcement of some of the immigration law's provisions, Bentley remained adamant: "I will continue to fight to see this law upheld."
Bentley now may not want to be "the face of illegal immigration bills in the country," but as governor of Alabama, he is. He can't hide from a law that once again damages Alabama's reputation across the country.
Instead, when HB56 passed the Republican-controlled Legislature in June, he was a strong supporter, proud of the law's unprecedented reach.
"I campaigned for the toughest immigration laws, and I'm proud of the Legislature for working tirelessly to create the strongest immigration bill in the country," Bentley said in early June after signing the bill into law.
Bentley maintained his rhetoric -- even as the federal courts picked the law apart -- but now the governor no longer wants to be out front on talking about the immigration law.
"I don't want to be perceived as the face of illegal immigration bills in the country, and I could be that," Bentley told The Associated Press last week.
That's too bad. Bentley, as the governor who enthusiastically signed and defended the law, is forever tied to it.
Bentley could have advised lawmakers to be less heavy-handed and take a more reasonable approach to tackling Alabama's relatively modest undocumented immigrant problem. He didn't.
As it stands, the law inconveniences legal immigrants and U.S. citizens as well as targeting undocumented individuals. The law encourages profiling based simply on how somebody looks and sounds. The law has left many of the state's farmers with crops in fields, waiting for harvest, but very few willing to do the hard work.
E-Verify, the federal system of identifying legal immigrants, should be all Alabama (or any state) needs to make sure undocumented workers aren't being hired. While the system still has some problems to be worked out, the U.S. Supreme Court has given E-Verify its blessing.
Instead, the Legislature and Bentley were determined to show just how tough Alabama could be. That kind of overreaction is part of the state's sad history and culture.
Bentley told The AP he doesn't "want to add fuel to the fire across the country where people continue to look at Alabama in a negative light. It's going to take us a long time to outlive those stereotypes that are out there among people that Alabama is living in the '50s and '60s."
Well, yes, as long as Alabama's leaders continue to make serious missteps. Just since 2000, we've had a chief justice who refused to remove a statue of the Ten Commandments from the state judicial building, despite a federal order, and had to be removed from office. Before the immigration bill passed, Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, one of its co-sponsors, told a Cullman County Republican group that on immigration, "empty the clip, and do what has to be done."
Beason argued that comment was taken out of context, but what about a comment during the bribes-for-bingo case where he used racially insensitive comments recorded on a wire he was wearing for the FBI? Beason later apologized, but the repeated damage has been done.
The reality is that Alabama has earned its reputation for intolerance. Bentley could have made a difference, but he chose not to. As recently as Oct. 14, after a three-judge panel with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped enforcement of some of the immigration law's provisions, Bentley remained adamant: "I will continue to fight to see this law upheld."
Bentley now may not want to be "the face of illegal immigration bills in the country," but as governor of Alabama, he is. He can't hide from a law that once again damages Alabama's reputation across the country.
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