Alabama immigration law: new appeal to block most draconian measures

Civil rights groups appeal against judge's decision to approve new state law regarded as toughest in US
Arizona immigration law
Protests against Arizona's new immigration law which was the first to be blocked by the courts Photograph: Michael Dwyer/AP

Civil rights and immigrant support groups have filed an appeal against a federal judge's refusal to block key parts of Alabama's tough new immigration law, regarded as the most draconian in the country.

The groups, along with the US justice department and church leaders, had filed three separate challenges to the law, which critics argue would legalise racial profiling. But on Wednesday US district judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn refused to block most of the provisions, allowing Alabama to require public schools to determine the immigration status of children upon enrollment and giving police the power to detain people suspected of being in the US illegally without bail.

Governor Robert Bentley, who signed the Republican-backed legislation in June, welcomed the ruling and said parts of it would now take effect immediately. "We intend to enforce it," he said.

But on Thursday, a coalition led by the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (HICA) filed an emergency motion seeking to keep some disputed parts of the law from taking effect, pending an appeal to the 11th US circuit court of appeals in Atlanta.

Victor Spezzini, of HICA, said: "We are concerned that this will allow racial profiling to be legal."

Law enforcement officials and teachers, some of whom have expressed concern over the law, say they are now unclear as to whether the latest appeal will stop the measures from coming into effect.

"At this point we do not know if that will involve a stay of the law from going into effect before the appeal is heard," Randy Christian, chief deputy of the Jefferson County Sheriff Department, told Reuters. "We also have to get some answers on how we actually enforce it and how we can do so without involving racial profiling."

Lawyers said that a key test of the new law will be whether state police enforce it. Two of Alabama's top law enforcement officers have said that, without fresh resources, enforcing the new law would hamper their ability to fight crime.

Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper and Mike Hale, sheriff of Jefferson County, have spoken of their concerns that having to enforce the new law would tie up limited resources.

Peter Spiro, an immigration law expert at Temple University in Philadelphia, said: "The bottom line is it [the ruling] effectively criminalises undocumented illegal persons in the US. If they start enforcing this, the consequences would be dramatic; there would be a mass exodus in Alabama of undocumented aliens. The question mark is, there's a lot of discretion to enforce laws."

Spiro said that police and sheriffs dislike the law, because it "sows distrust in the immigrant community and it lessens their efforts to solve real crimes".

"There will be pressure on police to enforce this law vigorously" said Spiro. "My guess is there will be some cases where they will have to enforce it. But will they go out on patrol looking for undocumented aliens in order to charge them with State crimes? That's where the question mark would be."

Blackburn, a Republican appointee, refused to block a provision requiring public schools to determine, by reviewing birth certificates or sworn affidavits, the legal residency status of students when they enroll. She also refused to stop provisions that barred state courts from enforcing contracts involving illegal immigrants, that made it a felony for an illegal immigrant to do business with the state and that made it a misdemeanour for a resident not to have immigration papers.

However, her 115-page ruling, at least temporarily, prevents provisions in the Alabama law which allows the state from making it a crime to knowingly transport or harbour an illegal immigrant and to bar drivers form stopping along a road to hire temporary workers.

The ruling surprised many as federal courts have already blocked attempts to introduce tough immigration laws in Arizona, Georgia, Indiana and Utah.

The growing legal battle over immigration has led the the Obama administration to consider stepping up its action against states passing immigration laws, the Washington Post reported on Thursday. Having already intervened in Arizona and Alabama, administration lawyers are now talking to officials in Utah about a possible lawsuit and are considering challenges in Georgia, South Carolina and Indiana.

"I don't recall any time in history that the Justice Department has so aggressively challenged state laws," Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University Law School, told the paper.

Immigration has become a political issue in Alabama over the past decade as the state's Hispanic population has grown to more than 185,000.

That is only 4% of the state's population, but some counties in north Alabama have large Spanish-speaking communities and schools where most of the students are Hispanic.

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