The Birmingham News (Editorial): Imagine you are the chief executive of an international company looking to expand to the United States. You like states like Alabama, especially, because of their right-to-work laws, available sites for new industry and, most of all, the tax and other incentives they offer.
After months of courtship, the search narrows to two states, one of which is Alabama. Both have landed huge international companies. All in all, they are about even in incentives offered, available locations and trainable work force.
There's one difference, though. Alabama has a harsh immigration law, one that makes life difficult not only for undocumented residents, but for legal residents and citizens. The other state has no such law.
Under that scenario, it's fortunate Alabama didn't have an over-the-top immigration law in the early 1990s, when Mercedes-Benz was looking for a place to build its first U.S. factory. Mercedes picked Alabama, and the plant that opened in 1997 has since expanded, and has been followed by other foreign companies such as Honda, Hyundai and ThyssenKrupp.
Turn on the imagination again, and ask yourself what Mercedes would have done in the early 1990s had one of its managers been arrested because he didn't have the right papers. Whether a person supports or opposes the immigration law, it's hard to argue the law isn't having an impact on the state's economic development and industry recruitment.
A 46-year-old Mercedes manager was stopped by a Tuscaloosa police officer last week for not having a tag on his rental car. After the man couldn't produce anything but a German identification card, he was arrested and charged by Tuscaloosa police under the immigration law for not having proper identification. The manager was released after an associate presented the right documents.
But Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson was clear: "If it were not for the immigration law, a person without a license in their possession wouldn't be arrested like this," Anderson said. Usually, people who lack licenses receive a ticket and a court summons.
Interestingly, word of the arrest made it all the way to Gov. Robert Bentley, who called the state's homeland security director. Do all such arrests get the governor's attention? Bentley should explain why he would get involved with such a minor case.
Of course, the arrest is another embarrassment for Alabama over its oppressive immigration law.
Under the law, people are required to show their papers to keep from being arrested -- not simply ticketed. This is a sad development that should appall all freedom-loving people.
It also is appalling to economic development officials who know that other states will use Alabama's law to get an edge in industry recruiting. Already, Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group, which was to build a $100 million plant in Thomasville, is "having second thoughts" because of the law, according to David Bronner, chief of the Retirement Systems of Alabama. Greg Canfield, director of the Alabama Development Office, disagrees, but it should be pointed out he voted in favor of the law as a state representative.
No doubt, the story of the Mercedes official's arrest will quickly make the industry recruiting rounds. It will be used by others to smack-talk Alabama as a xenophobic state unlikely to welcome foreigners. Whether true, it doesn't matter. That's the atmosphere this immigration law has created.
"We didn't have to be the poster child," Bronner told The News. "Not only do you get all the abuse, you lose the industry and you get to pay the big legal fees. For what?"
Yes. For what? So the state could make certain a Mercedes manager never leaves his hotel room without proper papers?
After months of courtship, the search narrows to two states, one of which is Alabama. Both have landed huge international companies. All in all, they are about even in incentives offered, available locations and trainable work force.
There's one difference, though. Alabama has a harsh immigration law, one that makes life difficult not only for undocumented residents, but for legal residents and citizens. The other state has no such law.
Under that scenario, it's fortunate Alabama didn't have an over-the-top immigration law in the early 1990s, when Mercedes-Benz was looking for a place to build its first U.S. factory. Mercedes picked Alabama, and the plant that opened in 1997 has since expanded, and has been followed by other foreign companies such as Honda, Hyundai and ThyssenKrupp.
Turn on the imagination again, and ask yourself what Mercedes would have done in the early 1990s had one of its managers been arrested because he didn't have the right papers. Whether a person supports or opposes the immigration law, it's hard to argue the law isn't having an impact on the state's economic development and industry recruitment.
A 46-year-old Mercedes manager was stopped by a Tuscaloosa police officer last week for not having a tag on his rental car. After the man couldn't produce anything but a German identification card, he was arrested and charged by Tuscaloosa police under the immigration law for not having proper identification. The manager was released after an associate presented the right documents.
But Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson was clear: "If it were not for the immigration law, a person without a license in their possession wouldn't be arrested like this," Anderson said. Usually, people who lack licenses receive a ticket and a court summons.
Interestingly, word of the arrest made it all the way to Gov. Robert Bentley, who called the state's homeland security director. Do all such arrests get the governor's attention? Bentley should explain why he would get involved with such a minor case.
Of course, the arrest is another embarrassment for Alabama over its oppressive immigration law.
Under the law, people are required to show their papers to keep from being arrested -- not simply ticketed. This is a sad development that should appall all freedom-loving people.
It also is appalling to economic development officials who know that other states will use Alabama's law to get an edge in industry recruiting. Already, Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group, which was to build a $100 million plant in Thomasville, is "having second thoughts" because of the law, according to David Bronner, chief of the Retirement Systems of Alabama. Greg Canfield, director of the Alabama Development Office, disagrees, but it should be pointed out he voted in favor of the law as a state representative.
No doubt, the story of the Mercedes official's arrest will quickly make the industry recruiting rounds. It will be used by others to smack-talk Alabama as a xenophobic state unlikely to welcome foreigners. Whether true, it doesn't matter. That's the atmosphere this immigration law has created.
"We didn't have to be the poster child," Bronner told The News. "Not only do you get all the abuse, you lose the industry and you get to pay the big legal fees. For what?"
Yes. For what? So the state could make certain a Mercedes manager never leaves his hotel room without proper papers?
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