From Alabama to Seoul: HB 56 Fight Moves to Hyundai Shareholders Meeting

The fight against Alabama's anti-immigrant law goes global.

By Julianne Hing Mar 16, 2012

Civil and immigrant rights advocates have made good on their promises to engage big business over Alabama’s HB 56, the nation’s harshest anti-immigrant state law. And they’re following them across the world to do so. A delegation of U.S.-based advocates presented at Hyundai’s annual shareholder meeting in Seoul this week to get the company to speak out about HB 56. In recent months, a coalition of immigrant rights groups has sent letters to foreign companies with manufacturing sites in Alabama to invite them to pressure lawmakers to repeal HB 56. So far, Hyundai’s made no move either way. The Korean automaker’s business amounts to two percent of Alabama’s GDP, said Wade Henderson, president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Together with Daimler AG and Honda, the automakers’ investments in Alabama amount to 45,000 jobs and $4.8 billion in wages, Henderson said.