Alabama’s ‘Incredible’ Immigration Law
Alabama’s new immigration law is reportedly the toughest in the nation. The law, HB 56, grants police license to question and arrest crime suspects about their immigration status, and requires renters, car buyers, and those connecting public utilities to verify their legal status, CNN reported.
If the goal is to scare undocumented workers out of Alabama, as critics contend, it’s working when it comes to farm workers and school aged children, some say.
“Incredible” is how National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference President Rev. Samuel Rodriguez described the law in an interview with CNN. “It is a repeat of the chapter lived by African Americans, but now the African Americans are Latinos and immigrants,” said Rodriguez.
A Voice Crying in the Evangelical Wilderness
Although Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and United Methodist churches filed suit to block the law, Rodriguez and other Latino evangelical leaders told CNN that their own voices are missing from the debate. But I know from personal experience that his isn’t one of them.
I interviewed Rodriguez for a 2006 Christianity Today article about how Southern California churches were dealing with the undocumented immigrants in their midst. He said then that protecting our borders is important, but so is Leviticus 19:34, which instructs us to treat the “alien” living among us the same as the native-born, because the people of God were once aliens in Egypt.
Rodriguez has been trying at least since 2005 to convince his white evangelical brethren to stand up for these principles.
“I would like to see the white evangelical church make some clear-cut statements that would resonate with the Leviticus 19 principle alongside with what we are stating: Let’s protect our borders; there is a legitimate border issue. . . . Nonetheless, we need to work at creating programs within our churches that will facilitate the expeditious acquisition of documents, residency, and citizenry requirements for these Hispanic immigrants,” he said.
Minutemen Founder Reconsiders Racism
A key activist in the opposition movement in 2006 was Jim Gilchrist, founder of the controversial border protection group, The Minutemen Project. I met Gilchrist at a meeting of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, where he was a featured guest.
When I interviewed him, he said he hoped churches weren’t ministering to undocumented immigrants “at all,” and amidst the propaganda and conspiracy theorizing at the meeting, one audience member described unauthorized Mexicans as “cockroachs.” If I recall correctly, no one, including Gilchrist, objected.
Gilchrist has apparently had a change of heart. In an Atlantic interview with Conor Friedersdorf, Gilchrist said that after years of infighting in the movement he founded, he realizes that a small percentage of it is “nothing but a bunch of skinheads.”
“From the far right, you get those who were attracted to my movement because they were outright, incurable racists. It’s white power fanatics. But they’re no different than the black power fanatics or the brown berets. Every race, color and creed seems to have their five percent of incurable fascists that are just looking for a place to hide. Or a place to infiltrate and take over,” said Gilchrist.
Gilchrist can’t be convinced that human beings will ever see each other as equals, he said. “There is going to be bias and we need to have those laws to protect us from each other,” he concluded.
What do you think?
Are undocumented immigrants and Latinos the “new African Americans” or does racism know no color as Gilchrist now contends?
I know that this won’t be popular, but I am originally from Alabama. I like the law. Although Leviticus may say that the alien among us should be treated as one of our own, it doesn’t say illegal alien. I don’t know what is wrong with asking people to follow the law and verifying that they are. The Alabama law isn’t against foreigners living within its borders, just the ones who are doing it illegally. Legal immigration is a good thing. Illegal immigration is not.
The Issue is and still remains LEGAL AND ILLEGAL ALIENS……no more no less
I agree with Mr. Gilchrist in that every race has their share of racist. That in no way makes following the law wrong. Having lived through the time in this country when racism and discrimination towards Black people was a matter of law, I personally find any comparison of that time in our country’s past to how illegal aliens are treated today offensive. Illegal alien laws target people’s action, not their ethnicity. That some people may confuse that fact (on both side of this issue) doesn’t invalidate the intent of the law. White people were not arrested for where they used the bathroom; they were not hung from trees because they were white. By the same token while illegal aliens are being arrested and sent to their country of origin just like other illegal aliens. There are many more illegal aliens of Latino descent than of European descent in this country; that is a matter of numbers not racism. Please stop disrespecting those Americans who gave their live so that every Americans civil rights would be a matter of law.
You can take the Bible out of context and make your argument. But that does not make it right. And to take the flight of the blacks of this country to show racism is ridiulous. They were citizens of this country, that was not given their rights. We’re talking about people that are in this country illegally. What part of illegai do you not understand?
The same part of illegal that forced Rosa Parks to the back of the bus… her sitting down was illegal, too. Illegal and immoral are not always the same thing.
the issue: is was and remains LEGAL and ILLEGAL aliens Without penalty there is no law, order or peace.
Amid a nearly $15 Trillion dollar U.S. treasury deficit, the 12 special politicians are scrambling to cut back on uncontrollable spending, why we not saving some of this money by stopping welfare benefits to illegal aliens? We can accomplish some instant cutbacks, by removing the encouragement, that criminal business have brought upon the average American worker, by displacing them with foreigners from other countries. It’s not like we don’t have our own share of poverty, but when the government-sponsored invasion has allowed this continuing for decades. Most every law to discourage illegal immigration has been tabled in Congress, or it has never collected enough sponsors to reach the floor. When I read a very thorough analysis by the Conservative think tank ‘The Heritage Foundation’ that illegal aliens were being subsidized to the unheard amount of $113 Billion tax dollars annually, then I knew that the Liberal progressives, Democrats and political class Republicans were behind this disgusting behavior. NO wonder the political perpetrators had never enacted illegal entry as a FELONY; instead it is even less than a misdemeanor?
We have become a dumping pit for incompetent governments for their 20 million unauthorized aliens. Incidentally, President Obama in his wisdom, with I’m sure from inside and outside influence to introduce some policy that illegal aliens were now classed as–undocumented immigrants. Well I will not oblige him in my commentary, even if the Liberal press writes in their columns, that all illegal aliens are now just immigrants? Guess this is the lefts push for strengthening their ‘Political Correctness’ agenda, which has been forced on every America? Except that the TEA PARTY knows better and that foreign aliens will be even more alienated after more authentic TEA PARTY Representatives, slide into Senate and Congressional seats by the time of the Presidential race in 2012. It’s almost laughable that the rabble ‘Occupy’ in city centers have been identified with the TEA PARTY–of course by our countries subversives and Liberal extremists. We are nothing like these people and shouldn’t be associated with any of this mob rule. The TEA PARTY doesn’t build tent cities, leave mounds of garbage, rape, kill or cause mayhem on the streets.
THE TEA PARTY NEEDS CHANGE FOR EVERY AMERICAN.
It’s time to look at this bipartisan spending spree and that includes illegal immigration. THE ISSUE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION HAS BECOME EQUALLY PREDOMINANT AS OUR LIFELESS ECONOMY, THAT IT IS A COST WE DON”T NEED AND CANNOT AFFORD. A TEA PARTY CONGRESS SHOULD START WITH A THOROUGH RE-DESIGN OF THE BORDER BARRIER, WHICH IS A DOUBLE LAYER FENCE, AND A RIGOROUS NATIONWIDE SWEEP OF BUSINESSES WHO ARE VIOLATING HIRING LAWS. This doesn’t include the immigrants that have proved by their highly skilled experience should be no admitted to settle, work. This country will always need people with substantial credentials in Science, math and engineering. Not the uneducated that are still streaming across our undermanned border. We can certainly stop the grim rising statistics of drunken driving, drug cartel criminals spilling over the border region and the endless tracks of impoverished people contributing to our own people’s poverty.
ENFORCEMENT CHAMPION RUSSELL PEARCE’S DEFEAT, HAS LITTLE MEANING FOR OTHER STATES
The open-borders bloggers and pro-illegal alien organizations are suggesting that the recall of Arizona state senator Russell Pearce means the beginning of the end for state efforts across the country to stop illegal aliens from taking jobs and taxpayer-provided benefits. And some of our allies in other state legislatures are even asking if they should feel vulnerable Pearce was beaten by Jerry Lewis, another Republican, who won with about 53% of the vote. If the challenge to Pearce had happened during a regular election year, it is doubtful that nearly as much open-borders money and energy could have been funneled solely to this recall effort. That alone might easily have made the difference in election results. All of this is to say that it took some very special circumstances to engineer Pearce’s defeat. Roy Beck of the pro-sovereignty NumbersUSA stated “I see nothing in the highly individualized circumstances of Pearce’s unfortunate election loss last week that should cause other elected leaders to pull back from their duty to protect the American workers and taxpayers in their jurisdictions from reckless lawlessness by the federal officials who refuse to fully enforce our immigration rules.”
Lamar Smith’s Legal Workforce Act (H.R.2885) would require 100% of companies—large and small– to use E-Verify for all new hires within 2 years. This bill would also require all federal, state, and local agencies as well as federal and state contractors/ sub-contractors and critical infrastructure sites to use E-Verify within 6 months; eliminating the majority of illegal alien workers from the 8.5 jobs they are holding in this country. Increase employer penalties and fines for knowingly hiring illegal alien workers. Require the Social Security Administration to send no-match letters to employers if existing employee’s name and social security number don’t match in their system. Require the Social Security Administration to notify owners of a Social Security number if their number is used multiple times.
Phone the Washington switchboard at 202-224-3121 and they can direct you to all House Representatives responsible for moving Chairman Lamar Smith’s ‘Legal Workforce Act’ (bill H.R.2885) to the House floor. Make a judgment for yourself and study more about the illegal alien occupation, which has caused major financial disruption issues in every nook throughout America. By going to NumbersUSA web site the truth is available instead of reading the devious repressed information from the two party system.
Perhaps your attention should also be drawn to H.R. 1148? My assumption is, nobody has heard of it before? It’s being kept awfully quiet in a bipartisan manner. Its legal title is the ‘Stop trading on the Congressional Knowledge Act’. This silent unethical award has manifested itself in the halls of power, as ‘Insider Trading’ by the both parties, having in advance financial intelligence of stocks and shares. Regular Americans on Wall Street would be prosecuted for inside trading and using it for their own greed, or communicating it to friends and relatives, so why are policy makers immune? Nancy Pelosi, (D-CA), and her husband have participated in at least eight IPOs, having a way in to information directly linking to the Wall Street businesses implicated. Republicans such as House Speaker John Boehner, who has also profited from transactions. These handsome rewards—are not available to members of the public.
A non-political equitable committee should be formed into delve into the rot of unfettered corruption, which resides in Washington. Learn more about corruption at Judicial Watch.
Please remember that ACORN is still out there under a different assumed name, but will be canvassing for Borack Obama for a second term, and will do anything necessary to keep him as President; even to allowing illegal aliens voting in any state or election leading up to 2012. Many states intentionally have flexible laws that leave a wide gap for non-citizens to vote, as California, Nevada and other partial Sanctuary states and cities.
Lastly President Obama has been hesitating on a oil pipeline from Canada, and now they are talking about handing it over to Asia. We could be well on our way to becoming self-sufficient in energy instead of being beholden to foreign countries, who mostly would kill us—if they had the chance. The administration’s decision to delay the Pipeline, which would have brought Canadian oil to US refineries in Texas, is now at a stalemate. THE UNITED STATES THAN ANY OTHER LOCATION IN THE WORLD HAS MASSIVE RESERVES OF OIL, WHICH WE COULD BE SELLING TO OTHER COUNTRIES, AS WELL AS CAPITALIZING ON IT FOR THE AMERICAN CONSUMER.
They provide a labor force in a job market which is not being filled and can rarely be filled because of the manual labor and long hours. Farmers were giving away their tomatoes outside Etowah County because they could no longer find labor to pick them. I think providing employers a clear way to apply for a work permit for an individual which may be here illegally benefits the employer and also helps with the immigration process. People don’t understand what to do to and need assistance.
We should get something clear straight away, the Israelites living in Egpyt during the biblical era is different in comparison to illegal aliens from Mexico. In fact the slaves of that era, moving out of Egpyt and into their own land were not imposing their culture, heritage or breaking laws, committing crimes on the scale of illegal alien Mexicans in America.
They respected the Egpyt culture though they were slaves, they didn’t try to change that country’s way of life. Their comparison would be ideal with African-Americans if not a near identica,l as being slaves and second class citizenry and humble in the land that is not there.
Illegal aliens from Mexico have no respect for U.S. laws and only want to see our border enforced after 40 million of them are here. They refuse to assimilate, they continue to show loyal to their country while claiming to be Americans. Most come for the welfare benefit than any real contribution. Even the ones that doesn’t receive benefits are simply taking jobs from American citizens than any sense if contributing. The cost to accommodate them outweighs their irrelevant contribution.
Last thing, for illegal aliens to compare themselves to African-Americans is a total disrespect, ignorance and downright mocking of the African-American’s brutal and embarrassing experience in a country they were forced to come to.
There is only one African-American race in America that have gone through what they have endured and these illegal aliens thinks, protesting without being physically abused, raped, lynched, murdered and having laws against them (as citizens of this country, after having contributed enormously), is somehow, equal to what African-Americans have gone through. Yet, Mexicans have never, openly, acknowledge African-Americans and the path they have paved for other minorities. They disingenuous claim “ownership” their experience and movement without having done anything nor deserving of their success.