WASHINGTON-- After a disappointing verdict that left some of the worst provisions of Alabama's immigration law HB 56 in effect, the federal government is finding itself ever more deeply entangled in a complicated legal thicket as it tries to figure out how to keep the list of states with their own immigration laws from continuing to grow. The clash of powers may advance all the way to the Supreme Court--exactly where the champions of these restrictive laws have been trying to get for the past two years.
In fact, this past Friday the Department of Justice appealed the decision of Alabama district federal judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn. A few days earlier, at an online discussion with Spanish media, President Barack Obama reiterated that the United States needs to avoid having a patchwork of 50 immigration laws--and therefore needs to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
But the debate over the wave of state immigration laws in the absence of such reform has turned into another blame game--while civil rights, our economy, and our moral fiber pay the price.
The federal government argues (correctly) that enforcing immigration laws is a federal matter. For their part, those promoting and defending these state laws say they're acting because the federal government has failed in its responsibility to enforce the laws, and they see a need to fill the gap
However, as we saw with Arizona's SB 1070--and even more with Alabama's HB 56, which is "SB 1070 on steroids"--these state laws go much further than mere frustration with the federal government. Anyone can see that these laws are discriminatory and unconstitutional, not to mention racially motivated.
To try to combat undocumented immigration by trampling on constitutional rights and encouraging racial profiling, as these laws do, is shameful. Such tactics can affect everyone--including citizens and legal residents.
The tears and anxiety among U.S.-born Hispanic students in Alabama, afraid that their undocumented parents would be identified, detained, and deported, are absolutely unjustifiable. Univision News interviewed a young boy, Damián, who was scared because his mother was undocumented. He summed it up clearly:
"I wanted to be a biologist, but now that dream is meaningless. I'm an American citizen, but what use is that? My family is here, but I can't be here without her, and they're going to take her away from me."
This is what the federal judge in Alabama green-lighted: one of the worst provisions in the law requires elementary and secondary schools to collect information about the immigration status of all new students and their parents. But even students who have already enrolled are now considering not coming to school anymore, out of fear of becoming the victims of discrimination or because their parents are undocumented. This provision violates the right of all children to get an education independent of their immigration status.
The law also permits police to ask for documents from anyone they suspect is undocumented, and invalidates contracts with undocumented immigrants--to keep them, for example, from finding housing.
Yes, it's true that the federal government clearly has the power to make immigration laws. But it's also true that Congress has failed in its responsibility to pass an immigration reform bill that would keep the Alabama nightmare from spreading like fire through dry grass. And so the Department of Justice has been reduced to putting out fires here and there.
It's also true that the federal government--exactly because it hasn't reformed federal immigration laws--has strengthened its relationships with state governments to fulfill immigration duties, with programs like 287(g) and Secure Communities. This has emboldened the politicians who use state laws like HB56 to push their anti-immigrant agenda.
Alabama has a long history of shameful conduct in the nation's civil rights struggles. Heedless of its own history, it is tragically repeating it.
Maribel Hastings is a senior advisor at America's Voice
Michael Wildes: Alabama's History With Jim Crow Revisited
This is just the latest chapter.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/us/after-ruling-hispanics-flee-an-alabama-town.html?pagewanted=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23
You should just sit still and let your family die of starvation.
The Story of 500 Years of Global Greed and Misery
......"for us in the North to maintain this lifestyle, we have to plunge more people below the poverty line in the South." But if the South had cartels to raise the prices of their minerals and agriculturÂal products, the economy of the North would collapse.
..... poverty is not an accident. It began with military conquest, slavery and colonization that resulted in the seizure of land, minerals and forced labor. Today, global poverty has reached new levels because of unfair debt, trade and tax policies -- in other words, wealthy countries exploiting the weaknesses of poor, developing countries such that today 20% of the planet's population uses 80% of its resources and consumes 30% more than the planet can regenerate.
Only 5% of the worlds population live in the United states, yet we consume over 25% of the worlds natural resources.
http://www.alternet.org/story/144129/the_story_of_500_years_of_global_greed_and_misery/?page=1
There are way to many bleeding hearts that think we should be paying for illegals to stay in our country. They all need to go home and "properly" apply to enter the US legally.
It's been a long time coming. Now we need to spread the law throughout the land.
All U.S. Citizens who pay taxes pay for the "illegals" in one way or another
1) Medical expenses
2) education
3) lost jobs and wages
4) additional law enforcemnt
Just to name a few. The list could go on and on.
Our Alabama new law seems to be working, 450 hispanic children missed school Friday, 1120 on Monday and today 2450 according to Fox 6 News and DOE statistics.
When the USCIS grants legal "vetted" entry into the USA, 1 million legal immigrants, each & every year since 2001
It's the 11.2 illegal "FREE LOADERS" imposing their narcisisstic behavior upon the U.S. Taxpayer is at question
Since illegals are not authorized to work in the USA?
Recent study ~ 71% of all illegal households take advantage of at least one U.S. Social Service (welfare) program
Illegals file IRS Income tax returns in fraudulent SSNs and IRS-issued ITINs for the $4.2 billion USD annually in REFUNDS
All the while, illegals send $30 billion annually out of the U.S. Economy, back to their homelands of origin
It is against the NEA's guidelines of immigration enrollment ~ whose members' income is based on increasing student enrollment numbers
http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/HE/09undocumentedchildren.pdf
Let me ask you a question, let say you work here, and save and sacrifice to buy a house in Mexico. One day you move back, only to find someone else's family living there for free.
Would you let them stay for free?
Illegal Hispanic aliens tend to be uneducated and have a high birth rate, hence economically,they tend to live in poverty. Illegal Hispanic aliens tend to not learn English. Poor, uneducated, won’t learn English is a recipe for failure in America.
Compare with Korean immigrants. Same skin color and same handicap of not knowing the language, but Koreans learn the language, overachieve, outperform American kids, and go to Harvard and Princeton. They embody the American dream. Hispanics underperform… study the reasons for this difference, you discover it is a difficult challenge to get Hispanics achieving at a high level…Hispanic culture and poverty makes this tough.
Everybody who comes to America does not have to succeed at the level of the Koreans, but the the number of Hispanics is creating a large highly uneducated and poor underclass…which drains our social services, our hospitals, negatively impacts our children’s education, and takes jobs from legal Americans.
Everybody wishes to come to America, so we can be picky, that is if we want to prosper in the 21st century. IF you don’t want that and only want to help millions of poor Hispanics leave Mexico, well, I think as an American your first responsibility is to America.
And an enlightened immigration policy should look at the ability and education of the immigrants…and preference should be given to Koreans, Chinese, Russians and Asians. Hispanics underachieve and drain America…but other ethnic groups actually contribute to America.
Many people have come from all nations, including Mexico to achieve success here.
This latest wave of illegal immigration is a different generation and people.
Try not to overgeneralize, it weakens your case.
I've got an idea, enforce the law themselvesÂ! Make employers liable for hiring illegal aliens including paying deportatioÂn costs. Crack down on "sanctuaryÂ" cities and states. Do whatever it takes to effectivelÂy secure our border including building a wall. Require at least one parent be an American citizen before any child born here can be considered a citizen. Leave talk of amnesty and Dream Acts until AFTER we have stopped the flow of illegal aliens into our country, and even then no one who has come here illegally could EVER become a citizen, only a permanent resident.
The illegal aliens are not the only threat to our way of life, but unless we secure the border, and secure ingress and egress, we'll never solve all the others.
Citizen parents routinely have to provide utility bills, leases, both parent's ID's and social security numbers and birth certificates. This is to enroll the child in school. To get public benefits other pieces of personal ID are required like paycheck stubs.
And the people do it. So why is it such a stretch to ask what country the family is from?
How could you not know something like that, and still be concerned about a requirement on info on legal status.
"SPLC Study Finds that More than Half of States Fail at Teaching the Civil Rights Movement"
The study – Teaching the Movement: The State of Civil Rights Education 2011 – examined state standards and curriculum requirements related to the study of the modern civil rights movement for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It was conducted by the SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance program and includes a forward by noted civil rights activist and historian Julian Bond.
The study compared the requirements in state standards to a body of knowledge that reflects what civil rights historians and educators consider core information about the civil rights movement. It found that:
A shocking number of states – 35 – received grades of “F.â€
Sixteen states, where local officials set specific policies and requirements for their school districts, have no requirements at all for teaching about the movement.
Only three states received a grade of “A†– Alabama, New York and Florida – and even these states have considerable room for improvement.
Generally speaking, the farther from the South – and the smaller the African-American population – the less attention paid to the movement.
http://tinyurl.com/65b8a7o