Blog Post 1 Alabama judge temporarily stops immigration law

This past Monday an Alabama judge temporarily blocked an immigration law. This law was set to go into effect Thursday, September 1, however state and church officials asked U.S. Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn to stop this law from being able to be enforced because they believe it is unconstitutional. This law requires police to “attempt to determine the immigration status of a person who they suspect is an unauthorized alien of this country” as stated by the fact sheet of the Alabama House of Representatives. The Alabama law would also enforce that the immigration status of students in public schools be verified. Last week, an Alabama attorney made the argument that this was also unconstitutional. However Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange stated that this law would not deny those who were illegal public school education. Even though this immigration law is temporarily blocked, state senator Scott Benson, a co-sponsor of the law, believes that the law “will be upheld”.

            While immigration is without a doubt an issue not only within the U.S. but also with the world, this law would cause police to be able to racially profile those who they believe to be illegal immigrants. Simply because someone appears to be foreign would give police the right to further inquire about the citizenship of a person. For example, there are millions of Hispanics in the country who are legal citizens, but just because they could appear to be illegal would mean that they would have to prove their citizenship at any time by the police.

           

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/29/alabama.immigration.law/index.html?iref=allsearch