Obama Defeated by the State of Alabama

A federal judge in Alabama says that schools may check the immigration status of students, and the police can do likewise with drivers and passengers during routine controls. This is a failure of the Obama administration, which challenged the strictest anti-immigration law in the U.S.

Wednesday’s decision induced euphoria among the ranks of Republican politicians from Alabama, led by Gov. Robert Bentley (this is the first time in 136 years that right-wing politicians have had an absolute majority), and grief from members of organizations fighting for civil liberties and Christian churches. The latter brought a joint lawsuit against the anti-immigration law.

“Our goal has always been to make sure Alabama jobs and taxpayer-funded resources are going to legal Alabama residents,” said Del Marsh, a Republican who tried to push the new rules through the state Senate, in a statement. “We’re really disappointed. We already know that this is going to cause a lot of problems in Alabama,” said Andre Segura from the highly influential American Civil Liberties Union. He announced a further struggle with the act. The U.S. Department of Justice will probably appeal too.

Following the decision of Judge Sharon Blackburn, police officers in Alabama will have the right to check during a routine control — e.g., when someone exceeds the speed limit — if a driver or passengers are illegal immigrants; they will do this only if they have “reasonable suspicion” that it is the case. They will arrest those people who cannot prove their legality.

Blackburn, appointed by Republican President George Bush, Jr., in the ’90s, has also recognized that the obligation to carry documents stating one’s immigration status does not violate federal law.

She decided similarly in the case of the most controversial entry, which requires kindergartens and schools to check the immigration status of children and their parents. The authors of the act adopted in June explained that the aim is merely to find out how much money the state allocates to the education of illegal immigrants. Nevertheless, the rules do not require their expulsion from schools. Defenders of civil liberties are reporting that undocumented parents, fearing such control, are likely to not send their children to schools at all. In this way, immigrants who have already been relatively poorly educated, will become even more illiterate in the next generation.

At the same time, Judge Blackburn has suspended several other laws, such as penalties for hiring illegal immigrants, carpooling and renting apartments to them, and the ban on studying at universities for those who are illegally in U.S.

Human rights organizations and representatives of Christian churches have emphasized that these provisions verge on racism. “We feel that many of these elements, written by members of the State House and Senate who campaign on Christianity, are not representative of the message of Christ who welcomed the stranger despite country of origin or status,” posted Revs. Matt Lacey and R.G. Lyons on behalf of 150 Methodist pastors.

Their joy may be premature, because Alabama authorities have announced the fight for recognition of the entire law as legitimate. In addition, Blackburn’s verdict is like wind in the sails for proponents of anti-immigration laws in states like Arizona and Georgia which, after the Obama administration’s suits and suspension by the federal courts, will be dealt with by the U.S. Supreme Court. Also, Blackburn found the records lawful, which in other states have been suspended by state courts. “This decision really gives the anti-immigration folks more of a victory than they’ve been getting in other courts. There’s a lot for them to be happy about,” admits Temple University law professor Peter J. Spiro in The New York Times.

It is estimated that of the nearly 4.8 million people in Alabama, the number of illegal immigrants is approximately 120,000. In the final reckoning, they are not so big a problem, and certainly not so much as among the 6.6 million people of Arizona (500,000) or the 37 million in California, where there are approximately 2.6 million of them. Nevertheless, the state of California does not intend to deal with them in a manner similar to Alabama and Arizona. On the contrary, the state has recently decided that those who stay in the U.S. illegally can even apply for scholarships.

Republicans governing Alabama and Arizona point out that in such difficult times, when the U.S. unemployment rate has been extremely high, reaching 9 percent, it appears that illegal people have been taking jobs from legal citizens. They are also a nuisance for states’ budgets. For example, money spent on the education of their children does not pay off, because they are not working legally.

The Obama administration has not only tried to block the state’s anti-immigrant law, but wants to loosen rules for the deportation of illegal residents who have been sent to jail for minor offenses. In 2010, the president also promised to push the Dream Act through Congress, which would give many illegal residents — and there are more than 10 million of them — the right to apply for permanent residency or citizenship. Due to the resistance of Congress, however, none of this has come to pass.

The White House will probably return to that idea, but perhaps in a slightly modified form, before the election in November 2012. It is worth pointing out that three years ago Obama, in the fight against Republican John McCain, was supported by as much as 67 percent of Latino voters. Illegal immigrants mostly come from Mexico and other countries of Central and South America, often arriving here as they follow their relatives, who have already become citizens of the United States.