Alabama Faith Leaders Launch TV Ad Against HB56

A coalition of Alabama faith leaders is launching a new television advertising campaign against the state’s immigration law. The group unveiled the ad yesterday.

It will air in Montgomery over the next two weeks. The Reverend Angie Wright of Birmingham says the group wants “as much change as politically possible,” but is not calling for a full repeal of the law. Supporters of the immigration law say it protects Alabama jobs. They say they support changes to the law to streamline it, but do not support wholesale rewriting.

HB 56 requires that all Alabama businesses register with a federal database that lets employers verify the citizenship status of would-be workers. The federal government says 18,137 Alabama companies had enrolled in the E-Verify system by Monday, the day after the deadline. But state figures show there are at least 85,000 companies with employees in the state, and some 368,000 businesses filed state tax returns last year. That means most of the state’s employers missed complying with the law by the deadline. There aren’t any penalties for failing to register.

To read more of WBHM’s award-winning coverage of Alabama’s immigration law, click here.