Judge Puts Alabama’s New Anti-Immigrant Law on Hold

The law is said by many to be the harshest in a string of harsh policies directed at undocumented immigrants to sweep the country.

By Jorge Rivas Aug 29, 2011

Alabama’s HB 56, the harshest law in a recent string of anti-immigrant policy proposals, has been set back a month by a judge in order to "adequately address the numerous charges," according to reports.

HB 56 was supposed to go in to law beginning September 1, but a lawsuit filed by the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama has postponed it temporarily. "This temporary injunction shall remain in effect until September 29, 2011, or until the court enters its rulings, whichever comes first," District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn wrote in the injuction.

Alabama’s HB 56 is the latest in a series of anti-immigrant laws that have been modeled after Arizona’s SB 1070 and passed by state legislatures. Colorlines.com’s Julianne Hing explains what separates Alabama’s law from the rest of them.

Not only did it expand law enforcement officers’ powers to enforce immigration law, it seemed to bring together every restrictionist provision that states and localities had considered or attempted to pass in recent memory. HB 56 barred undocumented immigrant children from attending K-12 schools by forcing schools to record and verify the immigration status of anyone who wants to enroll in Alabama public schools, in what seems a clear violation of the Supreme Court’s interpretations of the Constitution. The law also made it a crime to rent property to, employ or even give a ride to an undocumented immigrant.