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The good news is that Alabama is equal opportunity xenophobic

Posted: Nov 28, 2011

by digby

The good news is that Alabama is equal opportunity xenophobic. The bad news is that they aren't really supposed to be:

A German manager with Mercedes-Benz is free after being arrested for not having a driver's license with him under Alabama's new law targeting illegal immigrants, authorities said Friday, in an otherwise routine case that drew the attention of Gov. Robert Bentley.

Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson told The Associated Press an officer stopped a rental vehicle for not having a tag Wednesday night and asked the driver for his license. The man only had a German identification card, so he was arrested and taken to police headquarters, Anderson said.

The 46-year-old executive was charged with violating the immigration law for not having proper identification, but he was released after an associate retrieved his passport, visa and German driver's license from the hotel where he was staying, Anderson said.

The length of his detainment and the status of his court case weren't immediately known.

Mercedes-Benz, which is a division of Daimler AG, builds sport-utility vehicles at a large plant in Vance, about 20 miles east of Tuscaloosa. The automaker's decision to open a factory in Alabama in 1993 was considered a major coup for the state's economic development efforts and launched a trend of other foreign automakers and suppliers who opened major factories in the state, including Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.

Bentley, a Republican who signed the illegal immigration law earlier this year, called the state's homeland security director, Spencer Collier, after hearing of the arrest to get details about had happened, Collier said in an interview.
[...]
The law — parts of which were put on hold amid legal challenges — requires that police check citizenship status during traffic stops and take anyone who doesn't have proper identification to a magistrate. Anderson said that's what was done, but someone in the same situation wouldn't have been arrested before the law took effect.

"If it were not for the immigration law, a person without a license in their possession wouldn't be arrested like this," he said. Previously, drivers who lacked licenses received a ticket and a court summons, the police chief said.

Mexico issued a travel warning to its citizens thinking of visiting Arizona after it passed its draconian immigration law. Maybe European countries should think about doing that for Alabama. It's clearly a dangerous place to be a foreigner --- even if your employer provides thousands of jobs to the locals. But surely they never meant for it to impact a nice German man. (And somehow I really doubt that the GOP leadership and the Governor's office normally gets involved in these things.)

Meanwhile, I continue to be surprised to learn that individual states have created "homeland security" departments. Why do they need such a thing on top of their state and local police departments, various Federal DHS agencies plus the FBI? Alabama's DHS web site explains:

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security (AL DHS) was established by an act of the Alabama State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Bob Riley on June 18, 2003. Alabama is the first state in the Nation to create its own legislatively enacted Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. The head of AL DHS is Director Spencer Collier.

Alabama’s Homeland Security Department is staffed and organized to mirror the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The Alabama Department of Homeland Security is divided into four major functional areas including: Borders, Ports and Transportation; Science and Technology; Information Management and Budget; and Emergency Preparedness and Response.

The mission of the AL DHS is to work with our federal, state, and local partners to prevent acts of terrorism in Alabama, to protect lives and safeguard property, and if required, to respond to any acts of terrorism occurring in Alabama. To accomplish this mission, the Alabama Department of Homeland Security works closely with both public and private sector stakeholders in a wide range of disciplines: law enforcement, emergency management, emergency medical, fire services, public works, agriculture, public health, public safety communications, environmental management, military, transportation, and more.

Since its inception, the Alabama Department of Homeland Security has administered, throughout Alabama, over $100 million in federally appropriated homeland security grants.

Well, there you have it. A brand spanking new police agency with an incredibly broad mandate and a whole lot of money. What's not to like?

Update: I guess I'm the last to know, but Mr Google tells me that dozens of states have "Departments of Homeland Security" and they and other public safety departments are recipients of many millions of DHS grants to "fight terrorism." I knew, of course, that vast amounts of federal money was flowing to state and municipal police agencies in the wake of 9/11 but I did not realize that states were explicitly replicating the federal DHS at the state level. I guess you just can't have too many redundant policing agencies.

;

I think the real lesson is - Sweet Home Alabama

[ In Reply To ..]
that people should carry proper identification when driving a car. Who drives a car in a foreign country w/o a driver's license on their body?

I see nothing wrong with what happened. If the Feds aren't - going to enforce their laws, then it is up to

[ In Reply To ..]
individual states to ensure safety. Isn't it funny how the same people would be calling foul if they let this man go and then arrested someone of a different race for the same crime. Guess what folks--it is a crime to drive without a driver's license in your car. Good for Alabama!

I agree! Alabama did NOTHING wrong! Follow - the law, people... period! nm

[ In Reply To ..]
nm

Driving without a license is not an arrestable - or deportable "crime."

[ In Reply To ..]
Furthermore, it is not an act of terrorism and in no way does it threaten the "security" of the community (duh). Your race card is irrelevent, though it speaks volumes about what lengths you are willing to go to to miss the point. In his xenophobic zeal, the Tuscaloosa officer arrested an immigrant (who is not only well documented but is also one of those legendary GOP job creators) and threw him in the slammer. There is a really big difference between appearing before a magistrate and being detained in a jail cell. Also, the direct intervention by GOP leadership and the AL governor on behalf of the Mercedes executive is clearly indicative of preferential treatment that obviously would not have been afforded lesser mortals caught up in the aftermath of a misguided AL officer's blaring "oops" moment.

Immigration law is not written by state and local officials and never will be. Since state and local ICE/DHS agencies are bankrolled by federal tax dollars, they have to abide by existing federal policies, in this case the secure communities program, which explicitly prioritizes the most serious criminal offenders. The crimes where secure communities protocols may be applied are specifically spelled out and DO NOT include noncriminal offenses such as driving without a licence.

In response to early abuse by local agencies, not only have legal challenges been launched in multiple states that have suspended certain arms of the program, but also Obama has signed an executive order that reaffirms emphasis on serious criminal offenders and provides a mechanism via individual immigration case reviews and expanded discretionary provisions that will suspend deportation of immigrants in good standing with family and community ties indefinitely. BTW, judicial and agency discretion is nothing new. Obama's EO merely restores a specified vestige of such authority that was essentially decimated in the IRRA of 1996, and broadly expanded under Bush/Ashcroft DHS 2002 dictates, reflecting W's well-known contempt for judicial discretion.

The reality is that similar such incidents of lack of judgment by local law enforcement officers will do nothing but insure the proliferation of federal legal challenges to draconian state and municipal overreach, aimed at eliminating current trends toward instituting immigration vigilantism by state legislative initiatives.

Well, apparently it is an arrestable offense in Alabama. - I did not miss the point, I think that

[ In Reply To ..]
simply being here illegally should be a deportable crime. And, yes, I understand that was not the case in this situation, but then, he didn't get deported, did he? If our federal government is not going to enforce its own immigration laws, why shouldn't the states do it for them? As for who that is here illegally is dangerous and who is not, it really just isn't that easy to look and tell, is it? Anyone in our nation illegally is, by definition, a criminal. And if the state has a law supporting the police action, it is, by definition, NOT vigilantism (duh!).

Ummm, no it's not. - Now, please pay attention this time.

[ In Reply To ..]
It is an offense that only justifies citation, court appearance and/or fine, not arrest. It is not criminal for you, me, the officer, the governor OR the Mercedes executive to drive without a license, whether the license is lost, forgotten, suspended or WHATEVER. It's against the law, not criminal, kinda like jay-walking or forgetting to feed the parking meter...ticketable, not arrestable.

No, he didn't get deported because he is here legally, but he did get hauled in and thrown in the slammer instead of being taken in front of a magistrate (to be afforded the opportunity to produce the required documentation), which is the ONLY thing AL is authorized to do under the secure communities program when folks are stopped for NONcriminal offenses involving documentation. This is clearly spelled out in the secure communities policy. Not criminal is not negotiable in this legal application, matter how hard individual states (or the Fox choir) try to argue otherwise. The authority that has been extended to states under this program by the federal government can just as easily be taken away from them by the federal government. Like it or not, individual state legislatures DO NOT and WILL NEVER have the authority to deport (thank God). The state and municipal ICE and DHS agencies they have set up are only allowed to exist within the parmeters of the secure communities federal policies. For the sake of clarity, I repeat, state legislative, regulatory or enforcement agencies DO NOT HAVE JURISDICTION in deportation proceedings, period. Got it?

Now, about that other piece of Fox/right-winger misinformation. There are essential differences between undocumented, illegal and criminal. No, illegal by definition is NOT criminal. Immigration law does not fall under criminal penal codes, anymore than civil, family, or business law does (just to name a few of many types). The only immigrants who are criminals are the ones who have broken CRIMINAL laws (a very small percentage of all immigrants, either legal or illegal) and even under those definitions, ICE makes specific distinctions under their policies as to what rises to the level of a DEPORTABLE crime. Furthermore, there are mitigating provisions, such as family hardship, refugee considerations, work status, "good standing," length of residence, etc, that may allow an immigrant to overcome a record of minor or remote offenses and apply for legal status. That is why these determinations are made in FEDERAL immigration hearings, not law enforcement squad cars, municipal jail houses, county or state courts.

There are literally hundreds of examples I could cite to illustrate the distinction between illegal vs criminal, but a trip to the dictionary is really all that is called for here.

"Dangerous" appearance violations have yet to be written into the penal codes as well. Criminal records that establish convictions and/or outstanding arrest warrants (that do not necessarily establish criminality) are the only criteria used to establish priority of ICE deportation proceedings under the secure communities program and the recent EO on immigration case review, a measure which was precipitated by this very same kind of policy abuse by local authorities.

Now that we understand the difference between a criminal and an undocumented immigrant, before speculating about state and local authority, try reading the provisions under the secure communities program, then consult Mr. Google on how many court challenges in how many different states have already been launched to put a stop to what clearly is xenophobic vigilante over-reach (duh!), particularly in the South. Also, you might try separating your own personal opinions and Fox flapping head falsehoods from the actual facts of this matter. There is virtually no intersection between the two.

Wow--you must have a lot of friends, if you - speak to people the way you typed

[ In Reply To ..]
to me, but I doubt you do. You probably sit at home in your little hole all by yourself, anyway, thinking about how much smarter you are than anyone else. After consulting my dictionary, I find that the definition of "crime" is an "illegal activity." The definition of "criminal" is "A person who commits a crime." By those two definitions, one who is here illegally has committed a crime by participating in the illegal activity of being here, thus making him/her a criminal. I know that logic is difficult for some to follow, but it's there. I did get a kick out of your pedantic response, though. By the way, Alabama is the ONLY southern state with such a law. I just hope that more adopt similar laws. Really, liberal ought to like illegals being deported, it just means that the wealth gets distributed to fewer people.

Read me - (duh!)

[ In Reply To ..]
His/her post was spot on and well written, and YOU were the one who ended their post with a snarky (duh!). Turning this into a personal attack, a trip through Webster's, and a liberal slam is not political discussion.

Nein, nein, nein. Of course crime and criminal fit your schtick. - Illegal versus criminal, not so much.

[ In Reply To ..]
It's common knowledge that the Fox Inc faithful have legendary and pronounced tendencies to remove words from context to suit the purpose of advancing an argument based on a false precept. Your post is a perfect example. I would suggest consulting a legal dictionary in lieu of Webster's, just as you would favor Dorland's over, say, Oxford when trying to grasp a medical concept. Try looking up illegal vs criminal (as opposed to crime and criminal), then search for the tree, not the forest. Better still, check out the link below.

Within the immigration context, who is and is not a criminal is quite specific and varies widely in accordance with what stage of migration the individual is in (i.e., applying for initial entry vs current US residence for example, and all shades of gray inbetween). Only those immigrants residing in the US who have been CONVICTED (not ones who have simply been charged, are suspected, have outstanding warrants, ongoing appeals, and certainly not ones who resemble a dangerous, shady character, have a foreign accent, wear hijabs, burkas, chadors, turbans and banded headscarves or otherwise drive while being Moslem, or those who have Chicano rap blaring out their car's subwoofers, etc) of certain CRIMINAL violations as follows. You will notice that nowhere among them do you find minor traffic violations such as driving without a license.

The general term applied in most situations is "crimes of moral turpitude," but even that is not always defined in the same ways, depending on individual circumstances and again, can be waived in the face of other over-riding factors. Crimes involving moral turpitude are:

1. Property crimes, including arson, blackmail, burglary, embezzlement, extortion, fale pretenses, forgery, fraud, grand or petty larceny, malicious destruction of property, knowingly transporting or receiving stolen goods, robbery or theft.
2. Crimes against government authority, including bribery, counterfeiting, revenue, govt or mail fraud, harboring a fugitive or tax evasion.
3. Crimes against a person, family relationship or sexual morality, including abandonment of a minor child, adultery (fortunately certain current GOP presidential candidates do not have to pass the crimes-of-moral-turpitude sniff test), assault which specifically EXCLUDES simple assault, defined as either involving use of a deadly weapon or having intent to kill, rape, rob or inflict serious bodily harm, bigamy (again, practicing Mormons so inclined running for office need not worry, and Catholics who wife-shop/swap by having affairs before ending their marriages are off the hook), paternity fraud, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, gross indecency, incest, kidnapping, lewdness, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter only if it involves conscious recklessness, disregard or unjustified risk, such as in the Dr. Conrad Murray case. This does not include vehicular homicide or other manslaughter charges that only require proof of negligence for a conviction, which is not considered a crime of moral turpitude. Mayhem, murder, pandering, prostitution and rape are included in this category.
4. Attempting, aiding and abetting, being an accessory to, and conspiring to commit any of the above listed crimes of moral turpitude is also deportable.

Typically, I ignore personal slams such as the ones found in your opening comments, other than to observe that they predictably appear when partisan belief systems are challenged by the truth that lurks behind irrefutable facts. I will take exception here because the evolution of immigation law has been directly impacting my life for nearly four decades. My husband came here as a refugee under a special program that no longer exists. He left his country in the middle of revolutionary upheaval that was in essence an indirect result of US interference in the region that dated back decades before he was even born. The new regime was rounding up so-called "counter revolutionaries" (nationals who did not support their bloody coup) and he was among those who had a "death warrant" sworn by an illegitimate government. There was no time for formalities such as the issuance of visas and passports. He barely escaped with his life and arrived here via Germany one year later without either.

To make a long story short, recent changes in state laws here resulted in his commercial driver's license being revoked because he was unable to produce a passport and was considered to be "undocumented." Never mind that he has been married for 22 years to a US citizen and has been authorized to work here since 1985. He now is only allowed to drive under a C class license, which has resulted in a loss of around $150,000 so far in his transport business assets and revenues since March of this year. So, no dear, I am no know-it-all shut-in who has no friends. Quite the contrary. I volunteer for my neighborhood's outreach programs that assist refugees gain legal status. I do this because their story and their family's stories are my story and my husband's story. I also do it because over the years, it has brought rewarding, enriching and enduring social relationships into my life that I wouldn't trade for anything else in the world.

Here's where you look if you really want to understand the concept of criminality within the ICE context. If you check this link out, you will notice there are some qualifications and exemptions that apply to the above GUIDElines. Again, since judicial discretion is involved, and since ICE criminality is defined differently and more narrowly than that of state penal codes, deportation processing IS NOT and WILL NEVER BE done on a state and local level.

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86942.pdf

blah blah blah - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Another Soros' paid poster. Enjoy your coffee, this one is on me.

Soros pays for posts citing links to US Foreign Affairs policy manuals? - How can I sign up?

[ In Reply To ..]
Face it, you got nothing to offer but personal digs. Invoking Fox's most hated billionaire democratic donor and one of America's most reknown successful immigrants is a sure sign the post struck a nerve. It's downright impossible to find a leg to stand on, let alone on justify Alabama's equal opportunty xenophobia once state limitations and restrictions under existing laws are clarified. Buh-bye.

Great Post - see message

[ In Reply To ..]
"We reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters," stated Eliseo Medina, international executive vice-president of Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.
Medina was speaking at a June 2009 Washington conference for the liberal America's Future Now!

Medina said that during the presidential election in November 2008, Latinos and immigrants "voted overwhelmingly for progressive candidates. Barack Obama got two out of every three voters that showed up."

"Can you imagine if we have, even the same ratio, two out of three? Can you imagine 8 million new voters who care about our issues and will be voting? We will be creating a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle." Eliseo Medina - SEIU 2009

This is what progressives are all about. They pretend to be sympathetic to the plight of our southern neighbors. Progressives only care about one thing, and that is power. Their main goal is to see that the Jack@$$ Party stays in office, whether it is through voter fraud, intimidation or mass immigration.

America needs to wake up and realize we are being screwed by progressive policies.

On a side note, be wary of long-winded post because they are prog/lib posters paid to spew hate and contempt for anyone with Conservative values.

You have a very vivid imagination, - nm

[ In Reply To ..]

Sorry. Alabama does not hold exclusive xenophobic vigilante - bragging rights

[ In Reply To ..]
In fact, not all counties in Alabama are secure communities jurisdictions. The Southern Tier states where ALL counties are secure communities jurisdictions are South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas (where the program pilot was tested in Houston/Harris County), New Mexico and (of course) Arizona. Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee fall into the same category as Alabama, with only partial SC jurisdiction designations.

One of those southern jurisdiction challenges referenced in the previous post made the news just a day or two ago when US Rep Luis Guitierrez, D-IL, flew to South Carolina to accompany 27-year-old Gabino Sanchez at his ICE hearing after he was caught up in SC's ICE dragnet. Second link is to another very interesting test case for implementation of Obama's blowback EO case review order, so it would appear that your pedantic response in this regard is, well....misinformed. Again.

Here's a link to a nifty little interactive map that verifies the above information.

http://www.ice.gov/doclib/secure-communities/pdf/sc-activated.pdf

http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/11/29/1879869/us-rep-to-defend-ridgeland-man.html

Alabama is only one of 5 - Arizona 1070 copycat states

[ In Reply To ..]
which makes it just an average, garden-variety, legally challenged xenophobic legislative disaster zone.

The application of reasonable suspicion standards to state and local ICE enforcement initiatives in those locales where vigilante over-reach has been demonstrated is under fire on multiple fronts. Though nearly half of US state legislatures have considered floating similar laws, only 5 others have actually enacted such measures: AL-HB56, GA-HB87, IN-SB590, SC-SB20, and UT-HB497. So far, two entire sections of GA-HB87 have been totally scrapped in district court actions. An Indiana district judge slapped SB590 with an injunction. Just 14 hours after UT-HB497 was put into effect, a US District Court put the entire bill on hold. In all other instances, these attempts fell flat on their faces (26 state legislatures rejected them in 2010 and 2011 sessions). So far, these anti-immigration statutes have faced universally spectacular failures to withstand court challenges. Insert reality check here by contrasting the fates of the mother bill and it’s Alabama offspring.

AZ-SB 1070, April 2010
Initially, reasonable suspicion of illegal immigration status with no “legal stop” language was signed into law, but a week later was amended by AZ HB 2162 to include a “legal stop, detention or arrest” precondition. Without going into excruciating details, the bill has faced a litany of legal challenges on all levels, including constitutionality, multiple class action lawsuits and challenges by municipalities and the US DOJ, which resulted in a preliminary injunction that blocked most key provisions in the bill and so far appears to be headed toward permanency. It is currently wending its way through numerous lower court appeals processes and ultimately may land on the Supreme Court docket.

AL-HB 56, took effect September 11, 2011
Reasonable suspicion predicated on “legal stop, detention or arrest.” There are so many provisions of this bill that are currently blocked, it is almost impossible to determine just what parts of it are currently being enforced. Among those blocked provisions are efforts to prevent undocumented immigrants from attending public colleges and universities, prohibitions against transporting or harboring, the formal enforcement against employers who fire or decide not to hire legal state residents where undocumented workers are already employed, and efforts to make it illegal for undocumented workers to even apply for any job. Since this law is relatively new, it has not had the same amount of time for a full-fledged legal response to be implemented, but the above enforcement injunctions have resulted from constitutional challenges by immigrants’ rights groups, religious organizations and the Obama administration. In fact, the few provisions that have not been blocked are facing lower court appeals by the DOJ and an ACLU coalition of groups. The 11th Circuit appeal successfully added the provision requiring the collection of immigration status information on student enrollments on that blocked list. In light of these recent “jobs creators” stops, the realization that Alabama’s fledgling auto industry investments by Honda and Mercedes could turn into, shall we say, a transient phenomenon, is beginning to bolster strong opposition to the bill.

More details of resounding failures these measures have faced nationwide:

http://www.yourmira.org/2011/07/05/national-copycat-landscape/

Yeah, God forbid these states try to get control of - a mess the Feds WONT take control of.

[ In Reply To ..]
If you are illegal, get out! If you are legal, you have nothing to worry about in the end. This is pathetic.

Well, I thought her factually-documented post - was educational. No SM

[ In Reply To ..]
need to use personal attacks. I really appreciate FACTs versus Fox based nonsense designed to manipulate people who need a course in critical thinking skills.

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The question was, would angry Democratic voters turn out for a midterm election? The GOP was betting it all that they wouldn't. Well, angry black voters did. Approximately 10% of the population, they were 20% of the voters who said Get Lost to Governor McDonnell and his would-be successor Ken Cuccinelli. Even more specifically, angry black women voters turned out. 91% of them voted for McAuliffe/against McDonnell. I'm sorry to say white women actually cut strongly for McDonnell, ...

Dec 08, 2016
Like the MSM is not really reporting news, they are in the propaganda business. ...