Legislature Considers Immigration Law Tweaks

 ========= Old Image Removed =========Array
(
    [_wp_attached_file] => Array
        (
            [0] => 2011/04/immigration.jpg
        )

    [_wp_attachment_metadata] => Array
        (
            [0] => a:5:{s:5:"width";i:1920;s:6:"height";i:1440;s:4:"file";s:23:"2011/04/immigration.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:13:{s:6:"medium";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-336x252.jpg";s:5:"width";i:336;s:6:"height";i:252;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:5:"large";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-771x578.jpg";s:5:"width";i:771;s:6:"height";i:578;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:9:"thumbnail";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-140x140.jpg";s:5:"width";i:140;s:6:"height";i:140;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:12:"medium_large";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-768x576.jpg";s:5:"width";i:768;s:6:"height";i:576;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:9:"1536x1536";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:25:"immigration-1536x1152.jpg";s:5:"width";i:1536;s:6:"height";i:1152;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:9:"wbhm-icon";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:21:"immigration-80x80.jpg";s:5:"width";i:80;s:6:"height";i:80;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:13:"wbhm-featured";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-800x450.jpg";s:5:"width";i:800;s:6:"height";i:450;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:20:"wbhm-featured-square";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-600x600.jpg";s:5:"width";i:600;s:6:"height";i:600;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:18:"wbhm-featured-home";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-415x311.jpg";s:5:"width";i:415;s:6:"height";i:311;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:22:"wbhm-featured-carousel";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-353x265.jpg";s:5:"width";i:353;s:6:"height";i:265;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:28:"ab-block-post-grid-landscape";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-600x400.jpg";s:5:"width";i:600;s:6:"height";i:400;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:25:"ab-block-post-grid-square";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-600x600.jpg";s:5:"width";i:600;s:6:"height";i:600;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:14:"post-thumbnail";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:23:"immigration-125x125.jpg";s:5:"width";i:125;s:6:"height";i:125;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:12:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";s:11:"orientation";s:1:"0";s:8:"keywords";a:0:{}}}
        )

    [_imagify_optimization_level] => Array
        (
            [0] => 1
        )

    [_imagify_data] => Array
        (
            [0] => a:2:{s:5:"stats";a:3:{s:13:"original_size";i:3528511;s:14:"optimized_size";i:416605;s:7:"percent";d:88.189999999999998;}s:5:"sizes";a:10:{s:4:"full";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:51:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2011/04/immigration.jpg";s:13:"original_size";i:3356804;s:14:"optimized_size";i:290665;s:7:"percent";d:91.340000000000003;}s:9:"thumbnail";a:2:{s:7:"success";b:0;s:5:"error";s:77:"WELL DONE. This image is already compressed, no further compression required.";}s:6:"medium";a:2:{s:7:"success";b:0;s:5:"error";s:77:"WELL DONE. This image is already compressed, no further compression required.";}s:5:"large";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:59:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2011/04/immigration-771x578.jpg";s:13:"original_size";i:113300;s:14:"optimized_size";i:82370;s:7:"percent";d:27.300000000000001;}s:9:"wbhm-icon";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:57:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2011/04/immigration-80x80.jpg";s:13:"original_size";i:4093;s:14:"optimized_size";i:3983;s:7:"percent";d:2.6899999999999999;}s:13:"wbhm-featured";a:5:{s:7:"success";b:1;s:8:"file_url";s:59:"https://news.wbhm.org/media/2011/04/immigration-600x338.jpg";s:13:"original_size";i:54314;s:14:"optimized_size";i:39587;s:7:"percent";d:27.109999999999999;}s:20:"wbhm-featured-square";a:2:{s:7:"success";b:0;s:5:"error";s:77:"WELL DONE. This image is already compressed, no further compression required.";}s:18:"wbhm-featured-home";a:2:{s:7:"success";b:0;s:5:"error";s:77:"WELL DONE. This image is already compressed, no further compression required.";}s:22:"wbhm-featured-carousel";a:2:{s:7:"success";b:0;s:5:"error";s:77:"WELL DONE. This image is already compressed, no further compression required.";}s:14:"post-thumbnail";a:2:{s:7:"success";b:0;s:5:"error";s:77:"WELL DONE. This image is already compressed, no further compression required.";}}}
        )

    [_imagify_status] => Array
        (
            [0] => success
        )

)
1664527742 
1328572800

Alabama Legislature Considers Immigration Law Tweaks

The Alabama Legislature begins its regular session today and one of the big issues lawmakers will consider is changing the state’s immigration law. That law, HB56, is considered the nation’s toughest crackdown on illegal immigrants. When it passed last year it got very little attention from Alabama’s business community, but as WBHM’s Tanya Ott reports, business leaders are driving the latest efforts to modify the law.

Whoever said “All publicity is good publicity” probably never had dozens of protestors gathered in front of their office calling them Hitler. At lunch time, in Birmingham’s business district, students from several local colleges held a mock funeral in front of a bank. They accuse the company of funding private detention centers where, they claim, illegal immigrants have died. University of Alabama at Birmingham Student William Anderson organized the event.

“Everybody that voted for HB56 should be ashamed of themselves. And they should all be pushing for full repeal, not tweaking anything. You can’t tweak hate.”

It’s not likely the legislature will repeal the law, but there is mounting pressure to tweak it. Among other things, the law requires schools to record the legal status of all students. It also requires proof of citizenship to renew a driver’s license or enter into any government contract.

“The problem the governments have run into is the law is very broad in its definition of contractor or subcontractor.”

Cindy Crawford is editor of the Birmingham Business Journal.

“So to follow the law and cover all their bases, governments have sent paperwork requests to just about every company they do business with.”

The Business Journal itself received a notice from a local city that subscribes to the newspaper asking for the immigration status of all newspaper employees and subcontractors. It’s the law of unintended consequences. Long lines at the courthouse to renew car license tags and vegetable crops rotting in the fields since workers fled.

Business leaders got caught flat-footed when the law passed. It was soon obvious it would have a significant effect on economic development. Especially after two foreign autoworkers — a German executive with Mercedes Benz and a Japanese worker at a Honda plant – were detained under the law. The St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper ran an editorial inviting companies to relocate to the “Show Me State” … not the “Show Me Your Papers” state. Brian Hilson is the CEO of the Birmingham Business Alliance.

“It’s not like business prospects are sounding an alarm and coming to us and telling us that they are rethinking their plans to do business in Alabama. It’s the unknown. It’s what they’re not saying to us.”

Hilson says there’s no way to know how much business the state is losing, but researchers at the University of Alabama peg the cost at up to $11 billion in lost jobs and income and sales tax revenues. Scott Beason rejects that number and any efforts to significantly change the law. Beason is the Republican state senator who co-sponsored the original bill.

“If people begin to cave from political pressure, that donors want something changed, they’ll have to do it against the vast majority of the people in their district and go with the small special interest group that makes their decision based on profit.”

A public opinion poll conducted last week found 42% of respondents say they support the law, but think it goes too far. Already, several legislators have introduced bills to modify it and the courts have ruled some provisions unconstitutional. Still, there’s no disputing supporters of the law have achieved their main goal: driving illegal immigrants out of Alabama.

 

YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24 million to settle lawsuit over Jan. 6 suspension

YouTube is the latest social media company to pay Trump tens of millions of dollars to resolve lawsuits brought before he returned to power. The money will fund a new ballroom at the White House.

From painting to producing: Birmingham DJ Andrea Really releases first album

Birmingham DJ Andrea Really wasn't always a music producer. She used to be a prolific painter. But when her art studio burned down in 2017, she pivoted careers. Really spoke with WBHM about that journey upon the release of her first album this summer, called Zeitgeist.

A year after Helene, a group of raft guides embarks on a river clean-up mission

A popular rafting river in the Appalachian mountains is still closed a year after Hurricane Helene, because there's just too much debris. Now, rafting guides have come together to help clean it up.

Lesotho’s Famo music: from shepherd songs to gang wars

In Lesotho, a style of traditional accordion music called Famo has become entangled with deadly gang rivalries. Once the soundtrack of shepherds and migrant workers, today it's linked to killings, government bans — and a fight over cultural identity.

Comic Cristela Alonzo grew up in fear of border patrol. ICE has ‘brought it all back’

For the first seven years of her life, Alonzo lived in an abandoned diner in a south Texas border town. Her new Netflix stand-up special is called Upper Classy.

Compass-Anywhere real estate merger could squeeze small brokerages

The deal, announced earlier this week, would combine the two largest U.S. residential brokerages by sales volume.

More Government Coverage