The weakening of Alabama Immigration Law, AG’s Recommendations for Repeal

After Senator Scott Beason and Rep. Micky Hammon worked so hard to get the best in the nation law concerning the illegal immigrants, the recommendations by AG Luther Strange and comments by AL House Speaker Mike Hubbard, greatly weakening the Alabama law is around the corner. In the AL State Senate for a majority it only takes 6 liberal RINO Republicans working with 12 Democrats eager to pass bad legislation.

Subject: Breaking News on Immigration Law and AG’s Recommendations for Repeal

Open Letter to Alabama Legislators:

Breaking News of Alabama’s IMMIGRATION LAW!

As President of the Alabama Federation of Republican Women, I emailed you week ago my layman’s critique of how the Alabama Attorney General’s recommendations for repeal of several sections of Alabama’s immigration law would NOT strengthen but weaken the law. Now an attorney, an expert in immigration law with a nonprofit public interest law firm, concurs. The Attorney concludes: “Most of the suggested changes have been made for policy purposes and have little basis in existing federal law.” Put in layman’s terms, Luther Strange is recommending changes to our immigration law for “political” purposes. If you would like a copy of the legal opinion, please let me know.

Luther Strange should retract his “political” recommendations for repeal and the Legislature should reject them! No changes should be made to Alabama’s law until AFTER the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the Arizona law, on which Alabama’s law was modeled, in May or June. I was disappointed to read that Speaker Mike Hubbard plans to introduce a bill to change our immigration law this session BEFORE the U.S. Supreme Court rules. This is premature, and it prejudices Alabama’s defense of Alabama’s immigration law. It also could potentially cause voters to feel betrayed.

We have lauded our legislators for passing a strong immigration law and we continue to do so. It was not easy for you to withstand the assaults from businesses which hire illegal workers as well as pro-amnesty and open-border supporters. And we remain most grateful! This is what we expected with a Republican takeover of the Legislature! The immigration law is working! Legislators should not now cave to businesses like the Birmingham Business Alliance just because they are a political piggybank. This would be a throwback to the days when Democrats controlled the Legislature!

Most businesses, even those who fought a strong immigration bill and against e-verify, are now training their employees on how to comply. They’ve accepted the fact they lost the battle in the legislature and are supporting the law. Unfortunately, BBA is not among them. If legislators now vote to change the immigration law BEFORE the U.S. Supreme Court rules, it will send a message, true or not, that the Attorney General and Legislators want to weaken our law in the name of strengthening it, to favor businesses which hire illegal aliens and give political donations to Republicans, and to hurt the defense of Alabama’s strong law. (I’ve heard some business donors are threatening to withhold $$$ if the immigration law is not weakened.)

To wait until the judicial review process is complete is surely not too much to ask of our Legislators. You’ve withstood so much pressure to fulfill your promises to voters to give us a strong and enforceable immigration law. We applaud you! If you vote before the U.S. Supreme Court rules, some will ask if this had been the intent all along: To vote for the strictest immigration law in the nation to quiet voters, with a wink to political contributors who want to keep their illegal labor.

If you have not studied the Attorney General’s recommendations for repeal, I’m including a summary below. You can see why I contend that Luther Strange is paying politics with this law to benefit a special interest group; and why the attorney, an expert in immigration law, concluded that the Attorney General’s recommendations “have been made for policy purposes and have little basis in existing federal law.” I hope you will reject the Attorney General’s recommendations and that you will stand firm in your courage to repel lobbyists who want to weaken our bill in the name of making it “business friendly”. The battle has been fought. Unlawful businesses lost. Voters won. Please stand by your decisions and make no changes in substance or tweaks in language until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules. To do anything else, puts our Republicans’ reputation on the line.

AG’s recommendations for repeal include:
(1) Sections 5 and 6 which authorize citizens to sue government officials who refuse to enforce Alabama?s immigration law. The purpose is to keep Alabama from becoming a sanctuary state. These sections carefully track federal law. If they are repealed, citizens will have no recourse to make sure the law is enforced.
(2) Section 10 which requires aliens to carry registration documents on their person to show they are in the country legally. This has been federal law for decades and all countries require this. This section was expressly upheld by the Alabama District Court.
(3) Section 13 which (a) holds landlords accountable for knowingly renting to illegal aliens, and (b) makes it a crime for anyone to encourage an illegal alien to move to the state. Both of these provisions carefully track federal law.
(4) Section 27 which prohibits courts from enforcing any contract between a party and an illegal alien if the party knew the alien was in Alabama unlawfully. Neither the district court nor the U.S. Court of Appeals enjoined this section.
(5) Section 28 which requires schools to account for how many children of illegal aliens are enrolled. The purpose is to allow the state to better plan and budget for the costs to education children of illegal aliens. Taxpayers pay over $200 million a year to educate children of illegal aliens ? when all the while, some children don?t have desks, supplies or textbooks and some teachers are being laid off. The AG did not cite any federal/state law that this provision violates.
(5) Section 29 which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. This section was not enjoined by either the district court or the Court of Appeals.

Conclusion: The Attorney General’s recommendations for repeal are rooted not in law but politics. His recommendations would make the law “business friendly” by weakening it and undermining the purpose of HB56: to reduce illegal immigration through attrition.

Respectfully,

Elois Zeanah, President
Alabama Federation of Republican Women
http://www.afrw.org/index.html

Feel free to forward to your members and friends as an “alert” that voters are going to have to fight the immigration issue all over again — when we should be fighting to beat Obama and helping our favorite Alabama candidates on the March 13th primary ballot. If you feel strong enough that Alabama should not weaken the defense of our law while it’s being adjudicated and that Legislators should take no vote to change this law in any way until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules in May or June, Please contact your legislators. Now that the Speaker of the House intends to ask Republicans to change this bill in this session, Legislators will feel pressured to fall in line. They need to hear from you!

AL Legislature contact info, phone, email:
http://www.ccofal.org/alabama/alabamalegislature.htm
Contact Luther Strange at: Office Main Number: 334-242-7300
More contact info at: http://www.ago.state.al.us/Page-Contact-Us
This information brought to you by Alabama Defenders
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