A License to Discriminate
There have been many reports of schools using this law to discriminate against immigrant children. For instance, several parents reported in one community that a school official called out the Latino children and questioned them about their immigration status. While there were reports of discrimination prior to H.B. 56, now many people feel that Alabama has created a sense of empowerment for those who wish to discriminate.
Unfortunately, section 28 is far from being the only provision of H.B. 56 that has been affecting education in Alabama. Section 30 provides that any undocumented immigrant who conducts business with the state has committed a Class C felony. This provision has been interpreted very broadly to include not only vehicle, and until recently mobile home, registration, but also by denying undocumented immigrants access to electricity and water for their homes. Several of my immigrant clients have stated that their local water boards have denied them water service because they are not citizens. When my clients or I asked utility company employees about how a company could deny someone such a basic human necessity, they often responded, that's our policy. While some companies are merely trying to protect themselves from liability, it would be naive to believe that the world is free of people who choose to discriminate against others due to their accent or the color of their skin. H.B. 56 compounds the problem by empowering them to do so.
The state-sponsored acceptance of discrimination is even more obvious in the effects of section 27, which prevents state courts from enforcing a contract when a party is undocumented. In reliance of this law, auto dealers have been repossessing cars purchased by immigrants because there is no recourse for undocumented buyers in the courts. Similarly, tenants are being kicked out of their apartments with little or no warning because leases possessed by undocumented immigrants are no longer enforceable.
Undocumented immigrants have been made prisoners in their own homes for fear of this immigration law. Based on my conversations with immigrant families, many immigrants do not leave their homes unless absolutely necessary and keep the lights off so as not to alert law enforcement that anyone is home. Because they cannot renew their vehicle registration under section 30, they are afraid to even take their kids to school. Even if parents are not pulled over for driving with expired tags on the way to school, there are often police officers who sit waiting outside the school.
To further complicate driving with an expired vehicle registration, section 12 is included in H.B. 56. This section, also known as Papers, Please, states that an officer in the course of a lawful stop must determine the person's immigration status if he/she has reasonable suspicion that the immigrant is undocumented. The issue over what may be used to raise reasonable suspicion has been a major source of concern for immigrant communities across the country. Any use of race to suspect that someone is undocumented is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Police in Alabama are required to inform ICE of the identity and whereabouts of a person believed to be undocumented. If the law enforcement officer's stop or search of the immigrant is unlawful, the criminal charges may be dropped, but ICE can still continue with removal proceedings. Therefore, H.B. 56 allows officers to assist in the deportation of an immigrant even through an unlawful search.
Clearly, officers are put in a difficult position because they have to be concerned about their own liability. Not only did the law fail to provide time or training for police officers, but it also opened them up to personal liability for not enforcing the immigration laws. Officers can be held liable criminally, and as outrageous as it sounds, in civil court from lawsuits filed by any legal state resident for failure to uphold H.B. 56.
