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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Julian Teixeira
(202) 776-1812
jteixeira@nclr.org
Washington, D.C.—NCLR (National Council of La Raza) expressed outrage at U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Blackburn’s decision to let stand the most egregious provisions of HB 56, the nation’s harshest and most draconian version of Arizona’s infamous anti-immigrant and anti-Latino law. Those provisions include allowing local law enforcement to pull over and detain people whom they suspect could be undocumented and, even more disturbing, requiring teachers and schools to collect information on the immigration status of their students.
“This law harkens back to similar laws in Alabama’s past. We have been down this road before, and this is not a part of Alabama’s history that bears repeating,” stated Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO.
“Let me be very clear: allowing these provisions to go into law will wreak havoc on the people of Alabama, not just its Latino residents,” Murguía continued. “By failing to stop the law’s clearly unconstitutional directive to force teachers and schools to ascertain their students’ immigration status—a complete violation of a decades-old Supreme Court decision—and allowing the ‘papers please’ aspect of the law, which legalizes and legitimizes racial profiling, Judge Blackburn’s decision endangers the civil rights and public safety of every Alabamian and the education of every child in the state.
“Although several other troubling provisions were rejected by Judge Blackburn, this decision will sow confusion and chaos in the state and undermine education. Teachers will have to become immigration agents. Fearful parents may take their children out of school. Harassment and abuse of ordinary residents will increase, and police-community relations will be severely undermined as well.
“These are among the reasons why so many educators and law enforcement officials are opposed to these kinds of laws. Teachers and police know all too well that politically motivated stunts like HB 56 jeopardize their ability to do their jobs—educate children and protect the public’s safety.
“All of us want to fix our broken immigration system, but we should not fall prey to false solutions that only make the problem worse. We hope and expect that a higher court will side with every other decision that has been made on similar anti-immigrant legislation and overturn Judge Blackburn’s extremely disappointing decision,” concluded Murguía.
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