Beyond the Alabama Law, It's the Looks
October 16, 2011.
By Dan Kowalski
Even if H.B. 56, Alabama's tough new immigration law, is struck down by the federal courts - an outcome made more likely by an interim ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit - irreversible damage to the state's Latino population already may have been done.
Consider these comments in a recent news report (AP, Oct. 15, 2011) -
"Nelly Tadeo, a legal U.S. resident from Mexico, said she notices icy stares in Walmart and feels like whites and blacks are wondering if she is legal and pays taxes. “Even if the law gets canceled, Alabama is not going to be the same. Now, people are just looking at you like, ‘You’re an illegal immigrant,’” said Tadeo. “I think that’s permanent. A lot of people never thought about who was illegal, who was legal before. Now that’s what they’re thinking about.”"
Alabama, devastated by the tornadoes in Tuscaloosa and elsewhere, needs every able-bodied worker to help rebuild. But construction firm owners report that the fear generated by the Alabama law has driven away even fully documented workers.
The state's agricultural sector has been hit hard as well. John McMillan, Alabama's Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, reported crops rotting in the fields for lack of workers. When farmers try to replace immigrant workers with locals, most of the new hands leave the job by lunch.
Many Latinos will stay in Alabama, due to family, school and business ties. Some will suffer in silence, but on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011, many immigrant-owned businesses closed in boycott to protest the law and to illustrate the importance of Latinos to the state's economy.
Others will join the exodus, "refugees," if you will, not from the violence or poverty south of the border, but from the legal cold-shoulder H.B. 56 represents. Immediately following the issuance of the Eleventh Circuit's order, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, (D-IL-4) posted a press release on his website offering a welcome to Chicago "as a suitable destination to anyone choosing to flee Alabama."
"I offer anyone in Alabama an alternative. When Alabama was not a viable location for African-American families to raise their children back 40, 50 and 60 years ago, many came north to my city of Chicago as part of the Great Migration and revitalized and reinvented Chicago. Already, as Hispanic families are seeing no future for themselves in Alabama regardless of their immigration status or even U.S. citizenship, we are seeing some follow the same trail from Alabama to Chicago. We need all the good, hardworking, and conscientious people we can get in Chicago so Alabama's loss is our gain."
Is this the wave of the future, Latinos being driven from state to state, all being made to feel unwelcome due to the legal status of some? Here's looking at you, Alabama.
