Alabama Immigration Law Not Getting Support From Federal Government

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP) WASHINGTON -- The government hasn't offered to help Alabama put in place a strict immigration law that the Obama administration is challenging in court, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday.

The administration has sued to block the law, which is considered the toughest state immigration measure in the country.

"We have been working the Department of Justice in its challenge to that law," Napolitano told the House Judiciary Committee.

A federal appeals court in Atlanta this month temporarily blocked a part of the law that required public schools to check the immigration status of students. But the court did not bar law enforcement officials from detaining people suspected of being in the country without proper documentation.

A final ruling in the case is not expected for several months.

Alabama Republicans have argued that the law, passed this year by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Robert Bentley, was necessary to protect the jobs of legal residents.

The Obama administration, which also is challenging a similar law in Arizona, has argued that enforcing immigration law is a federal responsibility.

Advocates against the strict state law have argued that giving immigration enforcement power to local authorities will lead to racial profiling of immigrants, both documented and undocumented.

Napolitano said that while it is too soon to know what impact the new law will have, such worries "should be a real a real concern."

Similar laws have been passed in Utah, Georgia, South Carolina and Indiana. Civil rights groups have sued to block them.

Comments

[lowcountry]

06:22 PM on 10/31/2011

Janet- LAW = enforce, not look for work-arounds!

[spytheweb]

11:48 PM on 10/28/2011

"Alabama Homeland Security said despite being federally funded, it operates separately. It will enforce Alabama’s laws despite federal opposition."

http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/local_news/mobile_county/immigration-law-recieves-opposition

[Mulebone]

10:48 PM on 10/27/2011

Can somebody help me with this ...?

If Obama's reason for blocking the law is because it's the job of the federal government to enforce immigration law -- although he's not! -- how does he hope to prevent the Robert's-led Supreme Court from simply pointing out that since he's not doing his job the State of Alabama has every right to do it for him?

The Robert's-led court is the most conservative in decades and shows no sign of changing, at least by Nov. 2012.

What's Obama's end game?

And wouldn't it be a devastating defeat for him if the decision comes just before the November elections?

[Viper1st]

02:46 PM on 10/28/2011

Credit were credit is due ~

BHO Adm is setting record-breaking numbers of deportations ~ 1 illegal deported every 79 seconds of every hour, of every day, of every week, of every month of his 32-month presidency.

That's over 1 million illegals ~ deported in 32 months

[khandoor1]

01:04 AM on 11/10/2011

according to him... now that's funny

[upndacity]

03:25 PM on 10/28/2011

Obama's administration has deported more illegal immigrants in three years than the Bush administration did in eight.

Right wing lies have no shame.

[alpina]

04:00 PM on 10/27/2011

Alabama Immigration Law Not Getting Support From Federal Government ..WHICH IS WHY THEY ARE COMPELLED TO NEED IT. If the federal government did what they were supposed to, there would be no need for laws like this and SB 1070. Here you have direct and explicit testimony by the head of the agency, appointed by the administration that she is knowingly, willfully and deliberatlely ignoring illegal activity.

How would people react if the head of the DEA came out and said, "yeah, we're not going to enforce any of those drug laws that are the whole purpose for our agency to even exist. If you arrest dealers at the state level and turn them over to us, we'll just apologize to them and set them free."

Bottom line is that the states are doing what the federal government is not. HB 56 and SB 1070 should be supported by all Americans and the federal government should be condemned for their criminal negligence.

[Lynda Groom]

02:14 AM on 10/28/2011

We are deporting record numbers of illegals under the ICE program and President Obama. The states have a right to complain, but not to pass laws when the Constitution gives authority over borders to the Federal Government. Those record numbers of deportations are much, much larger than under Bush the border state president. If you check crime statistics in border cities you will see that crime committed by illegals is way down as well.

[alpina]

03:59 AM on 10/28/2011

You should really rethink your news sources. Listen to Obama himself last month at the hispanic history caucus state that the deportation numbers are overinflated because they are 1) counting people who are turned away at the border as being deported and 2) according to the head of ICE, most of the increase was actually due to policy changes being put in place under the last administration (who by the way also sucked on immigration enforcement) and lastly, when the safe neighborhoods program actually started to work, Obama immediately stepped in and halted the program allowing over 300,000 illegals that would have been deported to stay here indefinitely. Those numbers however were not figured back into the deportation statistics because they would have yielded a 75% DECREASE net.

[RobietheCat]

09:50 PM on 11/04/2011

Why should this surprise anyone?

The Bush jr Administration did the same thing with regulating Wall Street and Enron.

We currently and increasingly have a dysfunctional federal govt, that cannot and will not do the basics. This has deleterious effects on all of us. Look around.

We cannot keep electing people to the executive who have no commitment to upholding and enforcing the law. Obama should have stayed in the Senate if he had no intention to enforce the laws.

[LeftLeaner]

11:50 AM on 10/27/2011

Of course, let's continue to do nothing from the perspective of the federal govt.

[quillerm]

11:29 AM on 10/27/2011

Between Oct. 1, 2010 and April 30, ICE returned to their countries of origin more than 215,900 aliens, including 109,700 aliens with criminal convictions. Of those, 585 were convicted of homicide, 3,177 were convicted sex offenders, and 24,593 were convicted of serious drug offenses.

Think about how many people were killed, seriously injured or had their worlds turned upside down when a loved one, close friend, or business associate was killed or seriously injured by these transnational thugs!

Consider that the statistics quoted above were for aliens removed from the United States in just a seven- month period! How many more criminal aliens are still serving out their jail sentences in prisons around the United States?
Now consider how many alien fugitives who are wanted for the commission of serious crimes remain at large and, while they are on the run, are killing and injuring even more victims!

[chadizzy]

11:26 AM on 10/27/2011

Hillarious to watch Janet sing a completly different tune now that she is in the national spotlight. What a joke!

[Raccoon1]

11:19 AM on 10/27/2011

Washington State apple growers are short 40,000 pickers. The crops will rot on the trees, most likely. Word is that the immigrants fear being deported.

[Eric De Loach]

11:33 AM on 10/27/2011

Washington State has 0 unemployment? Anyone receiving unemployment payments should be required to work for the state fruit. Make prisoners pick them as well.

[Raccoon1]

11:51 AM on 10/27/2011

It's about 150 miles to Wenatchee from here. Pretty long commute.

[schrodster]

11:51 AM on 10/27/2011

Prisoners and the unemployed have the same status in your mind. Interesting

[LeftLeaner]

12:04 PM on 10/27/2011

How about providing a decent minimum wage (instead of slave wages) and American citizens will rethink this work.

[hburns1351]

11:15 AM on 10/27/2011

Prediction: There is going to be a sudden uptick in 'vagrancy' arrests in Alabama. Local judges will impose thirty to sixty day sentences working on Alabama farms. Vagrancy will be defined as being found in Alabama after dark while speaking Spanish.

[sistahfriend]

11:13 AM on 10/27/2011

This is my opinion. I bellieve the GOTBPers felt that with the decline of jobs in America, that they could pit the undocumented against Americans. This has been the sounding board for years, the undocumented was taking American jobs. Now they are realizing, that the jobs that a majority of undocumented were taking, are jobs Americans don't want or can't do. Now the farmers in those states are finding it very difficult to get their produce to market and losing money. This is what happens when you act without thinking. Now they want to blame the President.

[Hillbilly49]

10:48 AM on 10/27/2011

Why would any self respecting immigrant want to live in Alabama?  Come on down to Florida; we have a much nicer state and speak Spanish here.

[intellectualTradition]

12:52 PM on 10/27/2011

not for much longer.......amigo

[greyhound2]

10:38 AM on 10/27/2011

The Feds just do the bidding of the Chamber of Commerce, who need a large pool of unprotected workers to exploit. They will never give them amnesty, however, as they would lose all the advantages of exploitation.

[dfranz]

10:50 AM on 10/27/2011

Alabama along with Georgia is bankrupting farmers who cannot get their crops harvested. Nonhispanic workers don't want the job because they have to work too hard since they are paid by the pound. There are fewer illegals in the country than in the last 10 years mainly because of the fact there are no jobs and because the Obama administration has deported 440,000 already.

The entire illegal hooplah is just anothe straw dog to stir people up emotionally so they don't pay attention to what Republicans are doing and continue to vote against themselves.

[TheBarton]

11:01 AM on 10/27/2011

Ever heard of supply & demand? I'm glad we're fighting against this modern day slavery. Let's stay strong here. The farmers will eventually be forced to pay a better wage to the people that decide to do the work. Prices for food will go up of course. But I'd rather pay more from food than exploit slavery.

[lletaa]

11:07 AM on 10/27/2011

Typical of the GOP. They always rag on the hardest working and poor. You are spot on!!

[mimssandi]

10:38 AM on 10/27/2011

While right thinking Americans like this law, Alabamans have found that the law has had an immediate effect - on business. Business is down a lot as people leave the state or don't come in anymore. This law has put a brake on the small economic recovery that existed.

[alpina]

04:14 PM on 10/27/2011

Do you live in Alabama? What business are you in that your economic recovery was based on illegal aliens?

[futurejd]

11:25 PM on 10/27/2011

I do and pretty much all economic businesses benefit from illegals. This is a lazy stupid law that the state legislature didn't think through, as usual...

[GraceNotes]

10:07 AM on 10/27/2011

One of the primary reasons states have passed these tougher immigrations laws is because they said the federal government wasn't doing enough to curb illegal immigration. Now they cannot manage the laws they passed by themselves, so they beg the federal government for assistance.

[i hate politics]

10:40 AM on 10/27/2011

Nowhere in the story does it say the states begged for any assistance from the federal government. It simply says the Federal government "hasn't offered to help Alabama put in place a strict immigration law that the Obama administration is challenging in court". Why would it?

Come on people the article wasn't that long. Read.

[GraceNotes]

02:22 PM on 10/27/2011

You are right, "beg" is not the correct term. But Alabama seems to be complaining they are not getting support from the federal government, when they passed a state law, in part because of the federal government's inaction. So, do they really expect support, or are they just trying to keep the issue/controversy alive?

[xhawk2]

10:06 AM on 10/27/2011

I wonder if the liberal hypocrites attacking American immigration laws would be willing to condemn the Mexican immigration laws:

http://www.newswithviews.com/Slagle/john18.htm

[Brian Austin]

11:42 AM on 10/27/2011

That's the thing, we are not Mexico, we are AMERICA, and we are better than that.

[intellectualTradition]

12:53 PM on 10/27/2011

we won't be better if we are overrun with millions of illegal mexicans, will we ?

[rococobotz]

02:19 PM on 10/30/2011

we're all human.