{"id":1810,"date":"2011-08-24T02:26:50","date_gmt":"2011-08-24T02:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nilc.org\/?p=1810"},"modified":"2016-07-14T12:08:41","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T19:08:41","slug":"2011aug24hb56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/2011\/08\/24\/2011aug24hb56\/","title":{"rendered":"NILC Asks Federal Court to Block H.B. 56"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row el_class=”holder” css=”.vc_custom_1444345515294{margin-top: -90px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=”” width=”1\/1″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=”” width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text]\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:<\/strong>
\nAugust 24,\u00a02011<\/p>\n

CONTACT:<\/strong>
\nAdela de la Torre, NILC, (213) 674-2832; delatorre@nilc.org<\/a>
\n<\/a>Marion Steinfels, SPLC, (334) 956-8417; marion.steinfels@splcenter.org
\nVesna Jaksic, ACLU national, (212) 284-7347 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org
\nOlivia Turner, ACLU, Alabama, (334) 265-2754 ext. 204; oturner@aclualabama.org<\/p>\n

NILC and Civil Rights Coalition Ask Federal Court to Block Anti-Immigrant Law<\/h1>\n

MONTGOMERY, Ala.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0The National Immigration Law Center and a coalition of civil rights groups asked a federal judge today to block the state\u2019s anti-immigrant law from taking effect Sept. 1. The law criminalizes Alabamians for everyday interactions with undocumented immigrants and chills access to public schools, making it the most extreme of the five state laws inspired by Arizona\u2019s SB 1070<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Linton Joaquin, general counsel, NILC<\/a><\/strong>, said: \u201cFederal courts across the country have rightly stemmed the tide of unconstitutional state attempts to deny countless people of color and those who associate with them their fundamental rights. We are confident that the courts in Alabama will agree that a law that usurps exclusive federal authority and threatens the freedom of Alabamians should not be allowed to go into effect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU Immigrants\u2019 Rights Project<\/strong>, said: \u201cToday\u2019s hearing highlighted why Alabama\u2019s law must be stopped in its tracks. The law makes it impossible for immigrant families to go to school, to make a living, to take care of routine business, and even to drive on a public road without fear of being punished under state law. This discriminatory law aims at undocumented immigrants, but catches lawful immigrants and U.S. citizens in the crossfire.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sam Brooke, lead attorney on the case for SPL<\/strong>C, said: \u201cWe asked the court to block what is now the harshest anti-immigrant law from taking effect. Not only is Alabama\u2019s law blatantly unconstitutional, it flies in the face of American values by authorizing racial profiling, deterring children from going to school, and criminalizing those who lend a hand to individuals deemed by the state of Alabama to be \u2018illegal.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sin Yen Ling, senior staff attorney, Asian Law Caucus<\/strong>, said: \u201cHB 56 is intended to expel immigrants and must be struck down as unconstitutional.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Erin Oshiro, senior staff attorney, Asian American Justice Center<\/strong>, said: \u201cHB 56 will hurt all Alabamians, regardless of their status, and it is intended to create fear and confusion. We are confident the court will agree that this discriminatory law is unconstitutional and must not take effect.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Juan Cartagena, president of Latino Justice PRLDEF<\/strong>, said: \u201cTens of thousands of Latinos in Alabama now await the judge’s decision, fearful that they will have to flee Alabama if the new law goes into effect. But we are confident that the judge understands that the federal law’s mandate is clear, that Alabama cannot build its own immigration system, especially one based on racial divisiveness and one that is designed to harass Latinos and other immigrants so as to drive them out of the State. We will not let that happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Victor Viramontes, national senior counsel of MALDEF<\/strong>, said: \u201cAlabama\u2019s anti-immigrant law unfairly targets Latinos and violates core constitutional principles. This misguided law mandates racial profiling, interferes with the rights of adults to enter into contracts, and deters children from going to school. The Court should block this divisive law.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jessica Karp, legal counsel, National Day Laborer Organizing Network<\/strong>, said: \u201cThe courts will show this law is blatantly unconstitutional. Day laborers, like everyone, have the same first amendment rights that cannot be violated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Justice and a group of Alabama church groups also filed lawsuits against the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alabama\u2019s law chills children\u2019s access to public schools by requiring school officials to verify the immigration status of children and their parents; authorizes police to demand \u201cpapers\u201d demonstrating citizenship or immigration status during traffic stops; and criminalizes Alabamians for ordinary, everyday interactions with undocumented individuals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The law is even more restrictive than Arizona\u2019s draconian SB 1070, the anti-immigrant law that served as the inspiration for \u201cpapers please\u201d measures in five other states. Federal courts have blocked similar provisions in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. The coalition has also vowed to challenge South Carolina\u2019s anti-immigrant law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Attorneys on the case include Linton Joaquin, Karen C. Tumlin, Tanya Broder, Shiu-Ming Cheer, Melissa S. Keaney, and Vivek Mittal of the National Immigration Law Center; Mary Bauer, Sam Brooke, Andrew Turner, Michelle Lapointe, Dan Werner, and Naomi Tsu of the Southern Poverty Law Center; Cecillia D. Wang, Katherine Desormeau, Kenneth J. Sugarman, Andre Segura, Elora Mukherjee, Omar C. Jadwat, Lee Gelernt, Michael K. T. Tan of the American Civil Liberties Union and Freddy Rubio of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama; Nina Perales, Victor Viramontes, Amy Pedersen, and Martha Gomez of MALDEF; Sin Yen Ling of the Asian Law Caucus; Erin E. Oshiro of the Asian American Justice Center; Foster Maer, Ghita Schwarz and Diana Sen of Latino Justice; Jessica Karp of National Day Laborer Organizing Network; G. Brian Spears, Ben Bruner, Herman Watson, Jr., Eric J. Artrip and Rebekah Keith McKinney.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

View the motion for preliminary injunction<\/a>\u00a0(PDF).<\/span><\/p>\n

# # #
\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=”” width=”1\/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar-1″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

 <\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row el_class=”holder” css=”.vc_custom_1444345515294{margin-top: -90px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=”” width=”1\/1″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner el_class=”” width=”3\/4″][vc_column_text] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 24,\u00a02011 CONTACT: Adela de la Torre, NILC, (213) 674-2832; delatorre@nilc.org Marion Steinfels, SPLC, (334) 956-8417; marion.steinfels@splcenter.org Vesna Jaksic, ACLU national, (212) 284-7347 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org Olivia Turner, ACLU, Alabama, (334) 265-2754 ext. 204; oturner@aclualabama.org NILC and Civil Rights Coalition Ask Federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1810"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9315,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810\/revisions\/9315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nilc.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}