Alabama Highlights Civil Rights Concerns in State Immigration Laws

Read my commentary on Jurist about the Alabama immigration law (the The Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act (HB 56)), which includes a hodge-podge of enforcement-oriented immigration provisions. One provision, common to many modern state immigration laws including Arizona’s legislation, is that local police who lawfully stop a person are required to verify their immigration status if the officer has a “reasonable suspicion” that the person may be in the nation unlawfully. HB 56 also includes a novel provision, Section 28, which requires public elementary and secondary schools in Alabama to determine if an enrolling student (1) was born outside the jurisdiction of the US or is the child of an unlawfully present alien and (2) qualifies for assignment to an English as second language class or other remedial program. The U.S. Department of Justice has warned Alabama of its civil rights concerns with this provision and has requested information from the Alabama schools to see what impact that passage of the provision is having on Latino enrollment.

KJ