Alabama's overreaching immigration law .. far more trouble than it could possibly be worth

[struggle4progress]

Alabama's overreaching immigration law is showing itself to be far more trouble than it could possibly be worth
Published: Friday, December 02, 2011, 5:45 AM
By Birmingham News editorial board

Republicans who defend Alabama's confusing, punitive immigration law are right about the visiting Honda worker who somehow was ticketed under the law. They say the law has no provisions for ticketing people; if an immigrant can't prove status, he is to be detained, as was a Mercedes manager a few weeks ago who was stopped for not having a car tag.

If anything, it shows how dangerous it is to pass a symbolic law -- look how tough we are on immigration -- without fully understanding the consequences and providing funding to train those who will enforce it. Now, two of the three huge automakers that have brought thousands of jobs to Alabama have had employees harassed because of the law. No doubt, Korean visitors to Montgomery's Hyundai plant will be looking over their shoulders ...

The state Revenue Department now tells county officials they can't refuse to issue car tag renewals or business licenses to an immigrant unless they verify through the Department of Homeland Security the person is unlawfully present in the United States. That's an about-face from an earlier direction that told county officials to determine on their own whether an immigrant is here legally.

Also, a civil rights group is charging that revenue officials in Shelby and Jefferson counties are not following U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's order that temporarily prohibits counties from requiring people to prove citizenship to renew annual manufactured home registrations ...

http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2011/12/our_view_alabamas_overreaching.html

[Demeter]

1. Wouldn't that describe all hate crime, though?

"far more trouble than it could possibly be worth"

And this is borderline legalized hate crime.