More Fallout from Alabama's Tough New Immigration Law

After a federal judge upholds parts of Alabama's new immigration law, Latinos begin to leave town.  From this New York Times article:

The judge, Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, upheld the parts of the law   allowing state and local police to ask for immigration papers during routine traffic stops, rendering most contracts with illegal immigrants unenforceable and requiring schools to ascertain the immigration status of children at registration time.

By Monday afternoon, 123 students had withdrawn from the schools in this small town in the northern hills, leaving behind teary and confused classmates. Scores more were absent. Statewide, 1,988 Hispanic students were absent on Friday, about 5 percent of the entire Hispanic population of the school system.

Many of these students are likely US citizens.  I can't imagine it will be good for Alabama or the rest of the country to have these children taken from their parents or kept out of schools.  Non-educated, unwanted youth tend to make effective criminals.

Critics of the law, particularly farmers, contractors and home builders, say the measure has already been devastating, leaving rotting crops in fields and critical shortages of labor. They say that even fully documented Hispanic workers are leaving, an assessment that seems to be borne out in interviews here. The legal status of family members is often mixed — children are often American-born citizens — but the decision whether to stay rests on the weakest link.

And based on this Reason article, Americans don't want immigrant jobs anyway!Alabama Map

“This needed to be done years ago,” Shannon Lolling, 36, who has been unemployed for over a year, said of the law.

Mr. Lolling’s problem seemed to be with the system that had brought the illegal-immigrant workers here, not with the workers themselves.

“That’s why our jobs went south to Mexico,” he said. “They pay them less wages and pocket the money, keep us from having jobs.”

Yes, Mr. Lolling's problem is with the "system" and was created by the US government and its mixed economy.  Americans need to educate themselves about capitalism and start voting for the politicians who will implement it.  That alone will keep jobs in America and Americans at work.

Awful laws, like this legislation in Alabama, will not cure America of the problems it currently faces.  It will only create new ones.

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