With the passage of a harsh new anti-immigrant statute, Alabama has vaulted to the forefront of the debate on states’ authority to enact immigration-related laws, overtaking Arizona in the race among some states to claim the title of toughest enforcer. As originally enacted, the Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act (HB 56),1 authorizes law enforcement officers to inquire about the immigration status of anyone lawfully stopped if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that the person is undocumented. It bars undocumented immigrants from enrolling in public colleges, requires public schools to publish enrollment data on both legal and illegal immigrant students, and makes it a crime to knowingly rent housing to an undocumented immigrant. It also makes it a crime for a foreign national to fail to carry papers proving lawful immigration status. On the business front, it penalizes employers for the knowing hire of an unauthorized alien; requires all Alabama employers to use the federal E-Verify system, and seeks to bar businesses from taking tax deductions on wages paid to unauthorized immigrants.
Alabama’s law and similar statutes in Arizona, South Carolina and several other states are the next frontier in the long-running debate over the role of states in immigration enforcement. Last spring, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can penalize employers for hiring or continuing to employ unauthorized workers, but only through state licensing laws. The Court has not yet addressed larger issues of state power to enact broad immigration-enforcement laws, but the issue is now wending its way through the federal courts. The Department of Justice, along with the ACLU and immigrants’ rights groups, has assiduously challenged Alabama’s and Arizona’s laws, and on Oct. 31 announced that it had filed suit against South Carolina’s law.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
