Alabama's new immigration enforcement law has caused undocumented workers to move to Florida. (Photo by Scott Robertson/Coalition of Immokalee Workers.)
By Ralph De La Cruz
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
After experiencing domestic out-migration for the first time in its history, Florida may finally be attracting folks from other states to move here.
More snowbirds from New York? Disenchanted Beltway residents?
Nope.
Laborers from Alabama.
For more than a month, news outlets have been reporting an influx of undocumented workers moving to Florida from Alabama as a result of a newly passed state law that is the harshest immigration enforcement measure in the country. Entire communities packed up overnight and moved on.
The law requires police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they pull over, detain or arrest if they suspect that person might be here without papers. If they can’t produce papers, they’re taken in.
It also makes educators accumulate immigration information on students, which has had a chilling effect on Hispanic schoolchildren of Alabama — even if they are American-born and perfectly entitled to public education. That’s because many families are “mixed,” which means the children were born in the United States (and are citizens) while their parents are undocumented and not here legally. The first schoolday after the law went into effect, 2,000 Hispanic children were missing from their classes.
The Alabama law is the poster legislation for all the things that are wrong — and, its proponents would argue, that are right – about setting immigration enforcement policy on a state-by-state basis.
“[It's] piecemeal reform undertaken at the state level with different states doing different things, making it harder for employers to hire illegal immigrants,” said Gordon Hanson, an economist specializing in the impacts of immigration at the University of California-San Diego.
The state-by-state approach causes displacement, uncertainty and economic upheaval.
Outcomes that are actually embraced by advocates of the tighter laws.
“Those are the intended consequences of Alabama’s legislation with respect to illegal aliens,” U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama told Politico. “We don’t have the money in America to keep paying for the education of everybody else’s children from around the world. We simply don’t have the financial resources to do that. Second, with respect to illegal aliens who are now leaving jobs in Alabama, that’s exactly what we want.”
Immigration is so complicated and entwined through so many parts of our society that every law has multitudes of both intended and unintended consequences. And even the intended conseqences — such as creating more jobs for U.S.-born workers — often don’t have the desired effect.
“Since this law went in to effect, I’ve had a total 11 people that were Americans come and ask for work,” Alabama tomato farmer Jamie Boatwright told NPR. “A total of one of those actually came back the next day.”
Boatwright said that the worker picked about four boxes of tomatoes before leaving the field and quitting.
“There is a lot of heavy lifting and manual labor, and you are out there in the sun and the rain. It is just not attractive to Americans,” Mac Higginbotham, an official with the Alabama Farmers Federation, told the Washington Post.
Higginbotham said he knows of some Alabama tomato farmers who lost between 40 and 60 percent of their crop because they couldn’t find people to pick them.
When every state begins creating their own immigration legislation, one state’s unintended consequences becomes its neighbors’ unanticipated complication.
Or, if the neighbor recognizes the opportunity, perhaps an unexpected human windfall.
The differene between legal Americans picking the crops and illegals is that Americans are smart enough to not work for slave wages and no benefits. Absolutely no sympathy for the farmers who have made a killing for years by shirking our labor laws and hiring people who are not allowed to work legally. They should be jailed! Perhaps they should offer a living wage with benefits. Who did this work before the illegal invasion? Americans. I applaud Alabama’s for doing what Obama won’t – enforce our laws and drive out illegals!!
Can you accept as any average American that criminal businesses are using illegal alien’s workers, instead of hiring some of the 22 million jobless? There is even unmitigated evidence that somewhere between 8.5 and 9.0 percentage of illegal aliens are working in the United States. Please tell me—what sort of government allows this to continue? If you are frustrated and angry induced by this corruption in our sovereign nation, then explore your options? You can ignore this abuse of our immigration laws, set down by the 1986 Immigration Control and Reform Act or you can pound on the doors of indifferent politicians, obligated by their oath of allegiance to enforce immigration laws.
As a moderate Conservative and with Tea Party principles as myself, its completely illogical for the Department of Justice to coerce the states of Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and now South Carolina over there policing enforcement, to rescue their residents from the deluge of economic nationals. Even worse is this administration to even allow foreign governments in intervening in this ‘Witch Hunt.’ when they are the instigators of these swarms of illegal people appearing here? However, I must announce in fairness that President Obama started off well, in deporting hundreds of foreign nationals, especially criminals, but has faded out because of intervention by the Liberal extremist that were hired, with the intent of undermining public policy.
Have States no sovereignty rights anymore, when years of government mismanagement have placed us firmly in the predicament of not able to assert their own power. When the courts fail ‘The People’ and they enforce unfunded mandates by an administration bureaucracy. We are already taxed to the hilt, so why should we pay for illegal aliens who violate our laws? It is general knowledge that our schools to K-12, gives free education to children of illegal aliens. Or that our health care system is suffocating under a tremendous strain? That our penal system is overwhelmed with criminal aliens, from every poverty-packed corner of the world? That our prisons are so overcrowded that the judiciary directs, that we must place them in already crowded jails or let them go—back on the streets, as Obama’s has already begin to do, by executive order. Why is not every person who violates our laws, not facing FELONY CHARGES, inclusive of breaking into America? Under the MANDATORY LAW of E-Verify, most would self-deport.
The New Construction bill that was bipartisan today in this session, insist that every Contractor and Sub-contractor use E-Verify or be charged with a felony, as illegal aliens will still jobs from America Workers.
My opinion is that under strict codes of conduct as would be enacted by a larger majority of the House and Senate, represented by the TEA PARTY, would forever stop this collusion of corporate and big business and the lobbyists. Their ideology in Washington would have us; dismantle of border fence that bring rapture of joy to every open doorway entity, every radical group, who unfortunately has the cash power beyond the ordinary man or women to use us as slave-taxpayers. Although sadly a small part of the US population is fooled into a state of complacency, the greater volume knows now of hundred billion dollar price tag stuck into our wage packet.
TODAY WE CAN ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. WE HAVE THE POWER OF THE VOTE AND CAN REMOVE EVERY PERSON IN THE TWO PARTY CONGRESS, WHO HAVE SOLD US OUT. OF COURSE WITH THIS HISTORICAL 2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, WE HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO SAFE-GUARD THE ELECTORAL PROCESS.
Every law abiding American should be watchful of Liberal progressive tricks in our electoral law, as Rep. Keith Ellison from Minnesota who would undermine national election laws– as dismally unprotected as they are now. This Democrat envisions introducing a revised federal laws that allows the individual to register the same day and vote, without even showing any proof of which they are? This would open the door, to every illegal alien who can speak a few words of English and cause a major disintegration of most sacred right as a birth or naturalized citizen. Could any elected politician be so incompetent to introduce a bill that is illegal for every citizen of having to show picture ID. The man needs to be admitted and fitted for a straight jacket. We already have recorded cases of illegal aliens, felons, the dead and legal immigrants violating these laws. Voter fraud, using absentee ballots is the easiest document to forge and 2012 will be of paramount importance.
Smith’s THE LEGAL WORKFORCE ACT’ (H.R.2885.) The ‘Ways and Means Committee led by Majority Speak John Boehner (R-OH) must adopt the Mandatory E-Verify Bill (H.R. 2885.) and should be bombarded by demanding voters, as never before. Reps. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), Tim Johnson (R-Ill.), Reps. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) and Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) John Sullivan (R-Okla.) and just yesterday Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas) is now co-sponsoring House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith’s Legal Workforce Act (H.R.2885), with new members who are rapidly joining this monumental bill. Smith’s Legal Workforce Act (H.R.2885) that would require 100% of businesses to use E-Verify for all new hires within 2 years. The bill would also require all federal, state, and local agencies as well as federal and state contractors and critical infrastructure sites to use E-Verify within 6 months. The Legal Workforce Act could open up jobs currently held by illegal aliens.
So as of Wednesday November 9, 2011 currently has 100 sponsors, 58 co-sponsors, with only 43 House members to go. GET ON THESE LAWMAKERS CASES IMMEDIATELY—Call this number at the Washington Switchboard 202-224-3121. Consider that flourishing sites as NumbersUSA and hundreds of organizations such as American Patrol, Federation of American Immigration Reform, CAPS, Heritage Foundation and others have the answers on costs, surveys and analysis.
Go to any Search Engine or specifically GOOGLE and type in NumbersUSA site as there you can freely fax politicians and inform them that you are a voter, and will be doing so when they come searching desperately for your vote.
Smith’s Legal Workforce Act (H.R.2885) that would require 100% of businesses to use E-Verify for all new hires within 2 years. The bill would also require all federal, state, and local agencies as well as federal and state contractors and critical infrastructure sites to use E-Verify within 6 months. The Legal Workforce Act could open up as many as 7 million jobs currently held by illegal aliens.
THIS IS THE TIME TO SUPPORT THE AMERICAN UNEMPLOYED WORKER. GIVE ICE THE POWER TO COME DOWN HARD ON EVERY WORKPLACE, WHICH THINKS IT IS ABOVE THE LAW? BESTOW ICE AND OTHER AUTHORITIES TO SPRING FLASH AUDITS ON CRIMINAL BUSINESSES AND PROSECUTE THEM.
This law will be so damn degrading to latinos/hispanics do they know we all have immigrants in our roots we all came from somewhere in the messed up