Gov. Robert Bentley signed the state's new immigration bill into law June 9.
The law, now the strictest in the nation, makes it illegal to not only employ an illegal immigrant, but also to knowingly rent or provide transportation to an illegal immigrant.
The law also requires public schools to report the costs of educating illegal immigrants.
Bill sponsor Rep. Micky Hammon told The Birmingham News the bill was meant to attack all aspects of illegal immigrants' lives.
"This bill is designed to make it difficult for them to live here so they will deport themselves," Hammon said.
For a while now, we have wanted Alabama to be in the spotlight for something other than inclement weather and football.
However, it is appalling to now be thrust into national media attention for all the wrong reasons.
We are not surprised to see a law like this passed in our state, knowing how Republican and conservative the state of Alabama is.
What we are surprised to see is how far Bentley and his administrationare taking this.
It is ridiculous to expect the police to enforce something on this large of a scale with no additional funding.
Individuals arrested on suspicion of being here illegally can be detained in jail until their status is confirmed.
This seems counter intuitive to add strain to an already overburdened system.
The thing we dislike the most about this bill is the implications from an educational standpoint.
To interrupt the flow of a free public education system goes against a lot of what our country was founded on.
Teachers should not have to spend any of their time focusing on whether the children they are teaching are citizens or not.
This is not the only aspect of the issue we find troubling.
Many people say illegal immigrants are taking jobs from unemployed American citizens, but we don't feel this is the case.
How many people in your life would be willing to work construction in the sweltering heat for almost nothing?
There's no accountability for companies to pay the wages they tell the government they are paying these people.
To make matters worse, there is seldom any legal action taken against employers.
Illegal immigrants want to be here so badly, they fear for being discovered and take what they can get.
They are getting screwed over and they know it.
This isn't even something Alabama legislators should be dealing with.
We feel immigration should be a federal issue.
If this has become such an issue, the federal government should get involved.
It should make standard guidelines that the states can bend, to an extent, to fit their individual needs.
We also believe the naturalization process should be reformed and become more streamlined.
It is unrealistic and unfair to think illegal immigrants, many of whom are barely getting by, have the kind of spare cash to apply for citizenship forms.
The filing fee to apply for citizenship is over $600.
To apply for employment authorization is $380.
With fees like that, it's no wonder so many illegal immigrants remain illegal.
Many of us don't even have extra money like that.
These fees seem a bit archaic because of today's technology and convenience.
It takes just the click of a mouse to forward the application to the next reviewer.
We understand the need for a fee, but the ones in place are outlandish.
And if there should ever be national immigration reform, we feel it should include some anti-racism clauses.
What's in place now only encourages racial profiling.
Our country is known as the melting pot for a reason, and targeting the people who make up our nation's diverse groups doesn't sit well with us.
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