New York Times (Editorial): The self-inflicted wounds from Alabama's most-abusive-in-the-nation immigration law just keep on coming. Last week, a manager for Mercedes-Benz, visiting from Germany, was pulled over in his rental car by a police officer in Tuscaloosa near where a Mercedes plant builds sport-utility vehicles. The manager didn't have his driver's license with him, and only a few months ago he just would have been given a ticket. But Alabama's new law, now in effect, demands tougher action against suspected illegal immigrants. The manager was arrested and taken to police headquarters.
Germany is Alabama's largest international trading partner, and Mercedes, a unit of Daimler, recently announced more than $2 billion in new investment there through 2014. Is this any way to treat a visitor, especially one representing a company that could just as easily invest in some other low-wage state? Is this any way to treat anybody at all?
Of course, all sorts of unexpected and nasty things happen when you empower the police to demand papers of suspected illegal immigrants and nullify contracts they enter and impose a host of other vile and unnecessary penalties, like forcing schools to check the immigration status of children and their parents (one of several provisions blocked for now in federal court).
According to The Associated Press, this not-so-trivial traffic stop came to the attention of Gov. Robert Bentley, who called his homeland security director, Spencer Collier, who called the Tuscaloosa police chief, Steven Anderson. "It sounds like the officer followed the statute correctly," Mr. Collier told The A.P. Unfortunately, that is the truth.
Somebody in Alabama has to wake up. Even before the Mercedes debacle, some legislators were having second thoughts. Not the law's sponsor, a Senator Scott Beason, who was recently dumped by his Republican leadership as chairman of the rules committee, possibly because he used the word "aborigines" in a reference to black Alabamans. But Senator Slade Blackwell told The Times, "All of us realize we need to change it." And Governor Bentley has made vague comments about simplifying the law.
Our advice to Governor Bentley and the Legislature: Forget simplifying. Call a special session, repeal the law and begin repairing your state's crashing reputation.
Germany is Alabama's largest international trading partner, and Mercedes, a unit of Daimler, recently announced more than $2 billion in new investment there through 2014. Is this any way to treat a visitor, especially one representing a company that could just as easily invest in some other low-wage state? Is this any way to treat anybody at all?
Of course, all sorts of unexpected and nasty things happen when you empower the police to demand papers of suspected illegal immigrants and nullify contracts they enter and impose a host of other vile and unnecessary penalties, like forcing schools to check the immigration status of children and their parents (one of several provisions blocked for now in federal court).
According to The Associated Press, this not-so-trivial traffic stop came to the attention of Gov. Robert Bentley, who called his homeland security director, Spencer Collier, who called the Tuscaloosa police chief, Steven Anderson. "It sounds like the officer followed the statute correctly," Mr. Collier told The A.P. Unfortunately, that is the truth.
Somebody in Alabama has to wake up. Even before the Mercedes debacle, some legislators were having second thoughts. Not the law's sponsor, a Senator Scott Beason, who was recently dumped by his Republican leadership as chairman of the rules committee, possibly because he used the word "aborigines" in a reference to black Alabamans. But Senator Slade Blackwell told The Times, "All of us realize we need to change it." And Governor Bentley has made vague comments about simplifying the law.
Our advice to Governor Bentley and the Legislature: Forget simplifying. Call a special session, repeal the law and begin repairing your state's crashing reputation.
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