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Ala. is lab for Ariz.-style immigration provision
Rickey StokesViewed: 2719
Posted by: RStokes
Date: Jun 27 2012 9:57 PM
PELHAM, Ala. (AP) - Moments after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the "show me your papers" provision of Arizona's immigration law, the switchboard lit up at one of Alabama's largest Spanish-language radio stations as worried listeners called in.
"They're wanting to know if they're going to get stopped or arrested," said Orlando Rosa, the operations manager for La Jefa.
Alabama offers a glimpse of what may lay ahead for immigrants in several states that passed their own strict immigration laws modeled at least in part on Arizona's. Of those five states, only Alabama had been allowed by federal courts to enforce the "lawful stop" or "show me your papers" provision until this week.
That could change now that the Supreme Court upheld the section of Arizona's law that requires police to check the status of people who might appear to be in the U.S. illegally. The court overturned three other parts of the Arizona law.
Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana and Utah also approved laws based on Arizona's. All or parts of the laws were blocked in each state, and legal challenges can move forward now that the Supreme Court has ruled on the Arizona law.
Already in Alabama, even a chance encounter with police scares many immigrants. But they fear the Supreme Court decision could make things worse.
"Alabama is the lab for this part of the law," said Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Montgomery-based advocacy group that is opposing the Alabama law.
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