U.S. Appeals Court Delays Parts of Alabama’s Immigration Law (HB56)

The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta this afternoon blocked enforcement of two sections of Alabama’s immigration enforcement law, H.B. 56. But it also let two parts stand including the main provision based on Arizona’s S.B. 1070. The provisions are blocked until the Court hears arguments from the DOJ at a November 29th hearing, as to why they assert the law should be blocked permanently.

It is a mixed bag, to be sure, and Alabamans are getting rightly sick and tired of meddling by the same Federal government which refuses to enforce its own laws against illegal aliens.

Here are the affected provisions:

BLOCKED:

• Section 10, requiring immigrants to carry an alien registration card (Federal law already mandates this, btw)
• Section 28, allowing public school students to be questioned about their immigration status. (this was the source of most of the ridiculous media sob stories about “families in fear”, etc)

UPHELD:

• Section 30, blocking undocumented immigrants from entering into a “business transaction”; prohibited from obtaining vehicle registration, license or business license (a crucial provision)
• Section 12, allowing local law enforcement to stop, detain or arrest upon reasonable suspicion anyone “unlawfully present” in the state (the most important provision of the law – UPHELD)

Section 28, checking the immigration status of students ironically got the most press, yet had the least usefulness – to merely permit Alabama officials an accurate accounting of the cost of illegal aliens to schools, which the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has already estimated. However it did have a nice side effect of spooking some illegal alien parents enough to yank their kids and skip town.

On balance, however, we would consider this a loss for Eric Holder & Co, and a victory for Alabama. This is because Section 12 was upheld. This is the main, Arizona-derived provision of the bill, which was BLOCKED in Arizona’s S.B. 1070, using absurd emotional reasoning by the very political Judge Susan Bolton. So long as illegal fear being stopped by police and urned over to ICE, they will continue to leave the state. And this, coupled with the new mandatory E-Verify law, will rally put the squeeze on illegals like never before.

Section 30 being upheld is also a big deal, as it makes it almost impossible for illegal aliens to operate businesses in Alabama, which will drive even more of them out – the objective of any Arizona-style law.

Of course the thought of Holder arguing anything in a court, when his butt belongs in a cell at Leavenworth, is aggravating enough. but that is another matter entirely.

We will update this page as we get additional clarity and perspective from other analysts.