U.S. Asks for Bar to Alabama Immigration Laws During Appeal

The Justice Department asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday to block Alabama's strict new immigration law, saying it creates discrimination and drives aliens from the state through procedures outside those established in federal law.


In a filing with the Atlanta-based court, the department called the Alabama law "a sweeping new state regime."


"That state regime contravenes the federal government's exclusive authority over immigration," the filing said. "The law also invites discrimination against many foreign-born citizens and lawfully present aliens, including legal residents, by making it a crime for any landlord to rent housing to an unlawfully present alien, invalidating all contracts with unlawfully present aliens, and even targeting school-age children with an alien registration system," the brief goes on to say.


A message left with the Alabama Attorney General's office was not immediately returned.


U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn last week allowed major portions of the state's immigration law to go into effect, saying the Justice Department and a coalition of groups represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center had not shown they met standards for a preliminary injunction on the entire law. Blackburn turned back a request this week to stay the law while appeals move forward.


Blackburn on Oct. 5 denied the federal government’s request for a stay of enforcement while the decision is appealed.


“The state regime contravenes the federal government’s exclusive authority over immigration,” lawyers for the U.S. government said today in papers filed with the Court of Appeals in Atlanta.


The Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act includes provisions requiring public schools to collect data on the enrollment of children of unlawful residents and criminalizing the failure of illegal immigrants to complete or carry alien registration documents.


Blackburn’s Sept. 28 rulings allowed enforcement of those provisions as well as one making it a felony for illegal aliens to do business with the state or its political subdivisions.


The judge, who was nominated for the bench by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, blocked parts of the measure that criminalized the transportation and harboring of those illegally in the U.S. and their applying for jobs or being hired.


“The fact that the Department of Justice has appealed, comes as no surprise,” Bentley said today in an e-mailed statement. “I remain committed to seeing that this law is fully implemented. We will continue to defend this law against any and all challenges.”


The American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center and other civil rights groups have filed a separate lawsuit challenging the legislation.


The case is U.S. v. State of Alabama, 11-14532, U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (Atlanta).