Alabama Takes Lead in Anti-Immigrant Laws.

The hits just keep on coming, I tell you!

Push decent people to the point where they can't provide a roof over someone's head, or give them a ride, (or sell them food?) without breaking the law. (Jim Crow, redux?)

Where the choice is to let your harvest rot on the ground or do business that makes you a criminal.

Where they have to carry papers all the time to prove they belong here.

That will teach respect for authority.

Let's teach people that you have to rely more on a person's character than on the legal system. Oh, wait... that's actually a pretty good lesson.

This should push a nice chunk of change under the table and off the tax rolls, too.

rugcat said:

Among other things, it would prevent any illegal immigrant from attending college.

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Did they clear this with the football programs at Alabama and Auburn first?

I personally prefer the approach Utah was trying to take before the feds cockblocked it. It was a guestworker program where every illegal alien could apply for a green card and as long as they had a clean background, they could work. It also set up a punishment for businesses who didn't bother taking the steps to ensure their workers had the papers. It was to keep the dangerous ones out and the good ones here legally.

And here you all thought that Arizona was such a bad butt about all this.

It's nice to know there are other states that are lower than we are.
..................................carry on.......

So as long as we've got Alabama right next door, I guess Georgia won't be the most backward state. (And, of course, Alabama has Mississippi.)

Oh, I'm sure my home state would be glad to contribute its stupidity if we were closer to a border.

Alabama Takes Lead in Anti-Immigrant Laws.

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Alabama Takes Lead in Anti-ILLEGAL Immigrant Laws.

Fixed that for you.

TTCleveland said:

Alabama Takes Lead in Anti-ILLEGAL Immigrant Laws.

Fixed that for you.

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Thank you.

Exactly.

Isn't anti-illegal, legal? *confused*

Manuel Royal said:

So as long as we've got Alabama right next door, I guess Georgia won't be the most backward state. (And, of course, Alabama has Mississippi.)

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Georgia's farming industry has suffered dramatically ever since the new anti-immigration laws went into effect. Apparently illegal immigrants comprise a large part of this country's agriculture workforce. Farms in this state are practically screaming for laborers right now, but unemployed welfare-abusers consider such work to be beneath them, I guess.

Tanatra said:

Georgia's farming industry has suffered dramatically ever since the new anti-immigration laws went into effect. Apparently illegal immigrants comprise a large part of this country's agriculture workforce. Farms in this state are practically screaming for laborers right now, but unemployed welfare-abusers consider such work to be beneath them, I guess.

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Or the work is so awful/inaccessible that the only way to have people work them is to enslave them.

Xelebes said:

Or the work is so awful/inaccessible that the only way to have people work them is to enslave them.

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The history of progress is people finding better ways to do work that was previously so awful that nobody wanted to do the work.

Farm workers weren't forced at gunpoint to move to the cities and find factory jobs a hundred years ago. The people coming here from Mexico aren't being forced at gunpoint to cross the border and seek better opportunity here.

It's a long fucking way from being enslaved.

I think Vince has cheese to go with that whine.

The new greeting from Alabama police when they stop you: Papers!

Don said:

The history of progress is people finding better ways to do work that was previously so awful that nobody wanted to do the work.

Farm workers weren't forced at gunpoint to move to the cities and find factory jobs a hundred years ago. The people coming here from Mexico aren't being forced at gunpoint to cross the border and seek better opportunity here.

It's a long fucking way from being enslaved.

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That is just breathtakingly inaccurate. From the link:

• • The reported average hourly wage of farm workers nationally is about $6.17, which is 7 per cent less than in 1977, after inflation (New York Times) (However, many farm worker advocates contend that this figure is very misleading and is actually much lower. Farm workers work as many as 12 to 14 hours per day, but a workday of 8 hours is used to calculate the hourly wage.)
  • In the peak season farm workers work as much as 12 to 14 hours per day, six or seven days per week but no overtime is paid.
  • The average annual income of farm workers is between $7,000.00 and $8,000.00. This is lowest of all wage and salary workers in the US.
  • The number of farm workers living in poverty is increasing. In 1994-95, sixty one per cent of farm workers lived in poverty compared to fifty per cent in 1990

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Attn lurkers: If you've been thinking about joining the fun in P&CE but were a little nervous, today might be your day!

I've got to be on the road so I'm not going to be able to follow up on this post. I'd suggest that anyone who's interested in picking up my side of the debate google "migrant labor conditions" -- the counterarguments pretty much write themselves. Plus I bet there are heart-wrenching photographs available. Picture's worth a thousand words and all that.

This one's a no-lose, promise.

shawkins said:

This one's a no-lose, promise.

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Sure is.

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. Slavery predates written records, has existed in many cultures and in some historical situations it has been legal for owners to kill slaves.

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Migrant workers have a horrible life, compared to many. Globally, they also have a better life than many more. They are not enslaved.

Some farms are quite okay, depending on how much the farmer has actually invested into his farm. Your average wheat, canola, barley, corn and soy farm is not that bad with the mechanization and is quite tolerable. The chicken farms I've seen in the US? Yeah, they're going to have to put more money in them. There is a handful of other crops and animals that get tested in terms of how much you can produce for as little investment as possible, screw the workers.

The migrant workers aren't the slaves, but the illegal migrants have a sword over their heads which the farmer can unfairly exploit.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/06/critics_say_new_alabama_immigr.html

State Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, who sponsored the new law with state Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, said it will not have the broad effects that critics predict.
"There will be no profiling," he said. "We will not tolerate that. We welcome legal immigrants with open arms. But we can no longer have two separate societies, one that follows the law and one living below the law."
Supporters of the new law say they recognize the U.S. is a nation of immigrants.
"However, illegal immigrants have become a drain on our state resources and a strain on our taxpaying, law-abiding citizens," said Bill Armistead, Alabama Republican Party chairman.

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I really don't see how it is ok to allow people who are here illegally to work or remain here. I don't see how it is a problem to ask for ID, when I get stopped for speeding they ask for my license and registration. I want immigrants, it is what our country is founded on, but why do we allow and pander to illegal immigration and act like people who want to enforce WHAT THE FEDS SHOULD BE ENFORCING ANYWAY are racist and facist?

TTCleveland said:

Alabama Takes Lead in Anti-ILLEGAL Immigrant Laws.

Fixed that for you.

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rugcat said:

Really appreciate that, esp the giant font.

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TTCleveland makes a very good point Rugcat.

The notion that the Federal Government is not enforcing immigration laws is a myth. The Feds deport hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants per year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/25/AR2010072501790.html

Damn! Why do you have to go and ruin a perfectly good meme with facts?

Romantic Heretic said:

The new greeting from Alabama police when they stop you: Papers!

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Somehow I doubt they'd greet everyone like that. Unless they're colorblind. xD

Hey! They could be Canadian.