Alabama Immigration Law

Living in the South most of my adult life, I have experienced an explosion of illegal immigrant population in the nineties. Border laws were enforced in the '70s and '80s. It was hard to become a legal resident, much less an American citizen. People used legal channels and waited patiently for the resolution of their visas.

We did not have to speak a foreign language in our own country, press 2 for Spanish. There were no duplicate signs in Spanish in every large store. Forms were not printed in Spanish and doctors were not obligated to hire translators. Illegal immigrants could not vote and were not encouraged to do so. Nobody dared to demonstrate in front of Americans while waving their countries’ flags, shouting that America is theirs and the old gringos should roll over and die, it is time for young Mexicans to rule. La Raza was not stoking hatred in the open and it did not have a voice in the White House. We were not spending $25 per hour on translators to tutor illegal immigrants’ children in Spanish after school to read and do simple math. ESL was not touted everywhere. Legal immigrants made an effort to learn English and adapted to the laws and culture of America. They assimilated and became part of the American dream. We had fewer barrios and Latino gangs. The federal government enforced the borders.

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The stakes are high today to put a stop to illegal immigration that is threatening the functioning of our orderly society. It is up to individual states to do so since the federal government has relinquished its duty to defend the borders. If we no longer have safe and secure borders and the Mexican government tries to dictate to us what constitutes America, do we still have sovereignty? Arizona’s immigration law was immediately challenged in court. Conservatives cheered while liberals screamed racism in tune with the Department of Justice. The law did not violate anybody’s rights but reinforced the rules that the federal government should have enforced but failed to do. Arizona had become a war zone along its border with Mexico. The 2010 Arizona law found that “there is a compelling interest in the cooperative enforcement of federal immigration laws throughout all of Arizona.” The provisions of this act “are intended to work together to discourage and deter the unlawful entry and presence of aliens and economic activity by persons unlawfully present in the United States.” Immediately, all the liberal media denounced it as racist, profiling, and bigoted, and the Department of Justice filed suit against the state. Alabama passed its immigration law in June 2011 and it was immediately opposed by the Hispanic lobby, La Raza (the race), LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), corrupt business interests, and the open-borders Justice Department. Alabama’s immigration law is similar to Arizona’s law because it allows local law enforcement to ask for immigration papers during routine traffic stops. Alabama further voids any contracts signed by illegal aliens, forbidding them from “mainstreaming” into communities. The law also forbids contracts between illegal aliens and any organization of the state government. All incoming students must prove their immigration status before elementary and secondary schools can admit them. The state wants to know how much money is spent to educate illegal aliens. The day the law went into effect, many classrooms were emptied as illegal aliens kept their children at home, citing a hostile learning environment. All American children, before each school year, must show proof of residence in order to attend in a particular district. I am not sure Alabama will be able to overturn the 1981 policy upheld by the Supreme Court that requires all 50 states to provide free public education to illegal aliens. The Court ruled that “no substantial state interest” was proven by Texas when it tried to deny free public education to illegal aliens. Perhaps providing a figure of billions of dollars a year might persuade the court. As liberals promoted the failed multiculturalism model from Europe, 87 percent of Americans believed that English should be the official language of the United States (Rasmussen Reports). We are a nation of immigrants but we have followed the law and assimilated into this country, “one united people, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs…(Federalist Papers, John Jay) When the influx was disproportionately from one area, laws were written to curtail it. The 1965 Immigration Act (Hart-Cellar Act) caused a surge of Latin American and Asian immigrants for decades. The Hart-Cellar Act allowed more immigrants from third world countries and a separate quota for refugees. Residence was granted based on skill and family reunification. The “Fast and Furious” scandal served as evidence to the corruption and lack of protection of our borders when drug cartels make frequent incursions into U.S. territory. The results can be deadly, U.S. law enforcement officers and innocent citizens falling victims during drug runs and battles over territory. It is alleged that ATF illegally facilitated the transfer of thousands of guns to drug cartels in Mexico, with the knowledge of the Justice Department, in hopes that they would be able to trace the gang members through the U.S. registered guns. The evidence seems to point to the Obama administration providing guns to Mexican drug lords with the intent of blaming American gun owners and the Second Amendment rights for violent crimes committed in Mexico. The issues of immigration rest on a few simple facts that liberals ignore when they call illegal immigrants "undocumented workers:"

• It is illegal and a crime to cross the border of another country without proper visas and documentation.
• No right to automatic citizenship and the right to vote Democrat.
• Aliens fled from a third world country and from poverty, yet they want to bring it here and change our voting trends to fit the Democrats nanny state agenda.
• Illegal immigrants are not entitled to any generous social welfare programs, free medical care, housing, and equal protection under the law on par with U.S. citizens.
• Illegal immigrants are taking jobs that unemployed Americans were previously doing
• Illegal immigrants are driving wages down.
• Immigrants who are here illegally have committed a crime that is punishable quite severely in their own countries.
• U.S. taxpayers should not provide free education, medical care, welfare, housing, and other social programs for illegal immigrants.

Our country is broke and hard-working Americans who pay taxes are tired of being the silent majority who pays the bills while liberals, the Democrat Party, and Washington are ignoring their voices. More states like Alabama and Arizona should adopt laws that check the status of immigrants in this country. We must restore law and order and take our borders back. Without borders, we are no longer a sovereign nation.