Today, a federal judge has blocked Alabama’s controversial anti-immigration law from going into effect on Thursday – however the stay is temporary. Judge Sharon L. Blackburn stated she needs more time to look at the various suits filed against HB 56 including the suit brought by the U.S. government.
The new law, considered the toughest in the country, enacted in June would affect virtually every aspect of an unauthorized immigrant’s daily life, from employment to housing to transportation to entering into and enforcing contracts to going to school.
Alabama’s H.B. 56 goes further than Arizona’s controversial S.B. 1070 in that school administrators are being asked to check how many students are registering without birth certificates, hence the immigration status of their students. The law doesn’t mandate that they turn students away if they are undocumented. The state justified the need to check immigration status as a fiscal policy matter, needing to determine the impact illegal aliens are having on its education budget.
The judge said she would provide a final ruling by September 28, 2011.
