Scouse Express

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/pol...ed-in-alabama/

Happy Reading.


Jim.

Bluegrass Lass

Ha!

Needless to say, we won't be going to Alabama anytime soon.

If the guy sounded American, he would have simply been given a ticket for not having a license on him and sent on his merry way.

I wonder how my naturalized husband would have been treated? Would he have been arrested until I could show them his US passport and naturalization cert? What bullshit.

Brit3964

I've just been reading about this. This is the trouble when a passing a law that is designed to make every aspect of an illegal immigrants life impossible also ends up impinging on legal citizens rights as well.

Simply put, they overreached and their law is likely to be found unconstitutional since it attempts to create their own State immigration law. I expect in the months to come, AL will quietly "tweak" their law. Whether that will be enough to satisfy SCOTUS if they decide to review it, I don't know.

In the meantime, AL and AZ are off my list of States to visit.

sir_eccles

My understanding is that your husband (and myself since last Friday) now being a USC just has to say "I am a USC" and they cannot ask for proof in the same way that a natural born citizen can say in their American accent the same thing and they cannot be asked to show anything. Contrast to a permanent resident who can be asked to show his greencard.

Now that said, that doesn't stop some drunk with power cop arresting you for something else (obstructing justice maybe, driving while brown, walking with an accent) and taking you down to the station to "verify your identity".

Sad that one has to think along those lines.

AdobePinon

Must be why this morning I passed a column of nine numbered Merc SUVs, all Alabama-registered, two in semi-canvas disguise.

Anyway, I'll see your German, and raise you a USC...

http://m.santafenewmexican.com/mobil...ens-rounded-up

Brit3964

Colbert's way of telling it like it is

http://www.hulu.com/watch/293817/the...igrant-workers

Rete

IMO it was also the fact that the gentleman in question did NOT have a driver's license on him or his passport. All he needed to have are those to two documents and he would have been compliance.

Squirrel

If this is how they treat foreigners I would never go to Alabama. Having had one passport stolen while in the US, (and in that case I was near a British Consulate), I know how much hassle it is to get back to your own country if that happens, and somewhere far away from a UK Consulate? Forget it.

Thank God in the UK foreigners cannot be arrested for not carrying their passports. DH would have lost his several times by now. (Well he did lose it twice but was lucky enough both times to get it back).

fatbrit

Papiere Bitte!

Hope they build their next factory elsewhere.

Squirrel

I hope they move the one they already have to another state!

fatbrit

Yep!

The Alabama law was modelled on the Arizona one. The architect, Russell Pierce, has just lost his seat in a recall election. Seems the tide may be turning against these types of state laws.

Squirrel

Seems fair to be able to stop you and ask for ID, but ARRESTING you if you don't have it on you? It's the law in many countries for foreigners to carry ID but I've never heard of anyone being arrested for not having it. In the UK they don't differentiate between foreigners and Brits thankfully. Anyone stopped who can't prove who they are will simply be accompanied home to produce ID. If you had no ID at home you'd be in trouble but who doesn't have anything anywhere?

Funny thing in the UK is if you haven't got anything to prove your nationality they don't do anything anyway. They know there is no realistic hope of deporting someone if they don't know where to deport them to.

fatbrit

It's not in the national psyche of either the US or the UK to produce your papers. But big brother is constantly grinding us down.

It's a strange one, that. Feel you'd get fed up rotting in an immigration detention center were you trying to pull that trick in the US.

Bluegrass Lass

I've watched the UK Border Force show several times now, and thought it odd that they couldn't do anything to a person if they didn't have papers. Surely just releasing them goes against the whole idea of controlling immigration and knowing who is in the country for safety/security reasons? How many times do they have to release a person due to lack of a passport, then tell the person "report to your local police station once a week to check in", just to have the person subsequently disappear again? Surely there's security concerns with that?

I don't think ICE gives a crap if you have ID or not, they'll just deport you or let you rot in jail.

Bluegrass Lass

But you don't think arresting him was overboard?