ALERT: Changes Weaken Alabama's Immigration Law

TUSCALOOSA, Ala., April 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Alabama Federation of Republican Women has made its top priority to back a strong and enforceable immigration bill.  President Elois Zeanah stated Republican Women and conservatives across the state are proud of the current immigration law and don't want it weakened.  A recent poll showed that 75% of Alabama voters, both Democrat and Republican, support the current law.

"This is why," Zeanah stated, "that conservatives will not be able to support HB658 once they understand how recommendations by Representative Micky Hammon and House Speaker Mike Hubbard weaken the law and practically nullify its intent."  Zeanah issued the following statement:

Changes weaken Alabama's current immigration law and include: 

1. Citizens can no longer sue officials who are responsible for, but refuse to enforce the law, so Alabama won't become a sanctuary state.
2. Landlords can now knowingly rent to illegal aliens.
3. It is no longer a crime to encourage or induce illegal aliens to move to Alabama.
4. Schools can no longer require parents who are illegal aliens to provide the same information on their children for budgeting purposes as is required by citizen parents.
5. Contractors no longer have to require an affidavit from subcontractors that their workers are legal.
6. Employers no longer have to worry about being sued by aggrieved workers who were fired and replaced by illegal aliens since the bar of proof has been raised prohibitively high.
7. Employers can avoid any penalty upon conviction of knowingly hiring illegal aliens if a court decides the project is in the "public interest."
8. Courts cannot fine, jail, put on probation or suspend licenses of employers convicted of hiring illegals; yet citizens shall be found guilty of a Class C misdemeanor if the complaint is considered false or frivolous.
9. Courts can no longer require convicted employers to pay costs of former employees who filed and won lawsuits.
10. The law would not apply to companies doing less than 50% of their business with the state.
11. Police can no longer ask for registration documentation during a lawful stop, detention, or arrest if officers reasonably suspect an individual is in the country illegally unless there is an arrest or traffic citation.

HB658 was submitted late Thursday just before Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  Dropping this bill just before the Easter weekend when voters were engaged in family/church activities is reminiscent of when the Attorney General dropped his recommendations to repeal major provisions of the immigration law just before Christmas. Unfortunately, HB658 tracks some of the repeals recommended by the Attorney General.

SOURCE Alabama Federation of Republican Women