Tough immigration law leads to Ala. exodus

Tomato farmer Chad Smith looks over his crop on Chandler Mountain in Steele, Ala., Monday, Oct. 3, 2011. The impact of the Alabama Immigration Law will prevent Smith from being able to fully harvest his crop, costing his family nearly $200,000 in revenue and may put them out of business permanently. / AP Photo

MONTGOMERY, Alabama - Alabama's strict new immigration law may be backfiring. Intended to force illegal workers out of jobs, it is also driving away many legal immigrant workers who work in construction and on farms doing backbreaking jobs that Americans generally won't.

The vacancies have created a void that will surely deal a blow to the state's economy and could slow the rebuilding of Tuscaloosa and other tornado-damaged cities.

Employers believe they can carry on because of the dismal economy, but when things do turn around, they worry there won't be anyone around to hire. Many legal Hispanic workers are fleeing the state because their family and friends don't have the proper papers and they fear they will be jailed.

Rick Pate, the owner of a commercial landscaping company in Montgomery, lost two of his most experienced workers, who were in the country legally. He spent thousands of dollars training them to install irrigation systems at places like the Hyundai plant.

"They just feel like there is a negative atmosphere for them here. They don't feel welcome. I don't begrudge them. I'd feel nervous, too," Pate said.

Hispanic students disappear from Ala. schools
Ala. law cracks down hard on illegal immigrants

While it's not clear how many of an estimated 185,000 Hispanic people in the state have fled, one estimate figured as much one-fourth of the commercial building work force had left since the law was upheld last week, said Bill Caton, president of Associated General Contractors of Alabama. Commercial construction is a more than $7 billion-a-year industry in Alabama.

The law allows police to detain people indefinitely if they are suspected of being in the country illegally and requires schools to check the status of new students when they enroll. Those elements make it perhaps the toughest law in America.

The law targets employers by forbidding drivers from stopping along a road to hire temporary workers. It also bars businesses from taking tax deductions for wages paid to illegal workers and makes it a crime for an illegal immigrant to solicit work. A federal judge has temporarily blocked those sections of the law so she can study them more.

Legislators said the law would help legal residents suffering from nearly 10 percent unemployment.

One of the bill's authors, Republican Sen. Scott Beason, said he expected short-term problems, but he has received "thank you" calls from two people who replaced illegal immigrants who fled their jobs. Beason predicts that trickle will become a rush.

"We have the best law in the country and I stand by what we've done," Beason said.

Some farmers disagreed.

On Chandler Mountain in north Alabama, tomato farmer Lana Boatwright said only eight of the 48 Hispanic workers she needed for harvest showed up after the law took effect. Those who did were frightened.

"My husband and I take them to the grocery store at night and shop for them because they are afraid they will be arrested," she said.

Farmer Chad Smith said his family farm stands to lose up to $150,000 because there are not enough workers to pick tomatoes spoiling in the fields.

"We will be lucky to be in business next year," he said.

The financial toll will vary by area, and experts said it's too early to make predictions.

Cristian Gonzalez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is a stay-at-home mother of four who lives in a mobile home in suburban Birmingham with her husband. They sneaked across the border in 2009 and planned to save money and eventually return to their home country.

"We're afraid to go to Walmart. I'm afraid to walk the kids up there to get the bus. I am afraid to drive," Gonzalez said.

Her husband worked as a brick mason and cook, but was recently unemployed. Now they have decided they probably will return to Mexico.

"We're just trying to be here one more year, but with this law ..." she said, her voice trailing off as she shook her head.

In Tuscaloosa, there is still a lot of rebuilding to be done after Alabama's killer tornadoes in April. Without the Hispanic workers to help out, it will take even longer for neighborhoods to be fixed up. Blake Corder, the president of the Home Builders Association of Tuscaloosa, noted that the workers had left the area and he even lost a few renters in the past week.

Likewise, schools are worried about their students who have suddenly stopped showing up for class. Out of 34,000 Hispanic students, 2,285 were absent Monday. That number increased from Friday by a few hundred.

The figures show seven out of every 100 Hispanic children were out of school, even though state school officials have tried to assure parents that they won't release their names to police and that no child will be denied an education due to legal status.

At Gonzalez' mobile home community, driveways were full of cars and trucks at midday Tuesday, a time when most residents used to be at work. A resident who didn't want to be identified out of fear of the law said people are afraid to venture out during daylight.

"People are just not going to work. They don't want to be arrested," the woman said.

Builders have complained they can't find replacement workers and delays in projects are expected. Once the economy picks up and construction returns to normal, the impact will increase, said Russell Davis, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Alabama.

"There is going to be a void. No question," Davis said.

[swampape]

if you dont like alabama law or living in gods country ,maybe you should just move to detroit or miami ,the people of alabama have made a stand you dont like it,get out southerners dont need you around ,never did!!!!!!!!!!

[lilbear925]

Maybe it is time that someone looked into the farms that hired these illegal workers, as well. Too bad they can't get their crops in, but they were making it possible for the illegals to stay here and find work -- at the expense of US citizens.

[guest1974]

BOB DYLAN: "Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist Before they're allowed to be free? Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head, Pretending he just doesn't see? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, The answer is blowin' in the wind."

[guest1974]

HISTORY: Unless you were from a Native American Tribe (and even they were banned from being citizens) you could have at one time or another been considered ILLEGAL. Then unless you were English. Welsh, Scotch, Irish and as I've read African Americans shipped as slaves without permits, Asians, Quakers, Immigration laws were enacted against Germans, laws against Roman Catholics were enacted, 1790 free white men are allowed citizenship nonwhites and women were not.........

MANY OF US WERE "UNDOCUMENTED" for a very long time so many of our ancestors who settled here were also........and considered criminals.

Thankfully individuals showed Christian Compassion toward the children: In 1908, a group of Hull House women led by Jane Addams formed the Immigrants' Protective League. The group was formed to tackle immigration issues at the legislative level, where members lobbied for improved health care for immigrants, as well as fewer Federal immigration restrictions. The Hull House women also were instrumental in the campaign to persuade Congress to pass legislation to protect children. Their causes included issues that greatly affected child immigrants, such as child labor laws and education requirements (Johnson, 2005). Among these advocates from Hull House were Julia Lathrop, the first chief of the Children's Bureau, and Grace Abbott, Lathrop's successor.

[Galactus9]

I have read a lot of these comments about how we are all immigrants to this country. This argument has nothing to do with reality. The reality is that this land is now part of the United States of America, which is a country of laws. Our Federal Government has failed to enforce these laws for over 25 years and we find ourselves in the situation where individual states are trying to enforce what should be a Federal problem. Why can't the Federal Government just do its job and deport all illegal aliens? That is the law.

[guest1974]

NOTES FROM OTHER ARTICLES: The seriousness of the issue, which farmers contend could wreck crop production and harvests in Alabama, is also shared by state Sen. Paul Bussman, R-Cullman, who voted for the bill. According to the state's deputy agriculture commissioner, Brett Hall, small Alabama farmers have not found the going easy in trying to replace the undocumented workers with the kind of home-grown labor the new law's advocates have claimed the profusion of illegal laborers was suppressing. "They've advertised for workers to come out -- they need anywhere from 30 to 90 workers in the picking season, and they pay about twelve to fourteen dollars an hour for day labor to pick squash, apples, tomatoes -- and they can't get anybody. Or, people will come out and do it for a couple of hours, and then they walk away. It's hot and it's hard work, and people just don't want to do it, but these people [undocumented workers] will. They're Latino workers, and they work hard." "This issue involves every family that sits down at a table to eat. You have to have the labor or you can't produce. The idea that Alabamians are going to come out and do these jobs, it's not going to happen." Without an available labor force, the produce is going to come from Chile and China and places that don't have regulations that safeguard your crops," Smith said. "Somebody's going to have to take a stand against this. That's what we're attempting do and I think it's going to spread."
Once the purge takes hold in agriculture, there will be no one left to pick onions, peaches and cotton. The immigrant labor shortage is already being felt in Georgia, where crops are rotting

[DenverBroncofan]

@ humanrightsordie,

If there is any truth to your post, we will be reading about you in the obituaries fairly soon I would imagine

[Overruled1]

Being that schools depend alot on federal funds, the school roles are used to determine how much funding.
What this story didn't mention that was discussed last week was that Hispanics are pulling out of schools as well, but didn't mention the federal funding part....

[Dgunner]

If the american citizen would investigate and boycott the farmers who use illegals then they would go broke or find other ways to get thier crop in. The subsidy money they receive from tax payers is only matched by the last years cost of getting the seed in the ground and product to market. Without the illegals the farmers can't cook thier books and make things appear the way they really are not and then pocket the difference.This so called exodus hopefully is just a start to what will come in near future.The lazy deadbeat parents that have been getting away with not paying proper child support owes this country. If they have been on welfare or thier children and haven't got work for years ? Then we should send them to the fields or the road crews . They owe this country as many tears labor as the country fed and insured thier children.Grand parents who let thier dead beat children live in thier basement and draw welfare and assistance from the govt. to take care of thier grandchildren as just as guilty and deadbeat as thier sorry offspring.

[humanrightsordie]

My wife is brown. Her family is documented here for more than four hundred years. Her family has sent members to every war this country has fought. TODAY, because of you backwoods lunatics, her civil rights are violated and based on the color of her skin she can be stopped and forced to rove her citizenship. If this happens to her, I will viciously attack any police officer and do everything in my power to protect her rights, my son's rights, and anyone I love. THEY WILL WALK FREELY ON THESE STREETS WTHOUT HARASSMENT! AS others have said. YOU MADE YOUR BED NOW SLEEP IN IT you uncivilized dogs. I encourage everyone to act out BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY and protect the rights of your fellow human beings, regardless of skin color, in these situations. BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!!!

[JFK2112]

How are her civil rights violated? If your wife gets pulled over for a traffic violation and she doesn't have a driver's license, the police can ask if she is here illegaly. I encourage everyone to ignore this idiot!

[guest1974]

I am a Hispanic American, yes U.S. Citizen an I would also be Leary of "backwoods and backwards" people who would enact such a law but..... Keep in mind the many good people there too:
www.NYtimes.com
Bishops Criticize Tough Alabama Immigration Law
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON Published: August 13, 2011
CULLMAN, Ala. — On a sofa in the hallway of his office here, Mitchell Williams, the pastor of First United Methodist Church, announced that he was going to break the law. He is not the only church leader making such a declaration these days. On Aug. 1, the Justice Department joined the fray, contending, as in a similar suit in Arizona, that the state law pre-empts federal authority to administer and enforce immigration laws.
And on that same day, four bishops sued. An Episcopal bishop, a Methodist bishop and a Roman Catholic archbishop and bishop, all based in Alabama, sued on the basis that the new statute violated their right to free exercise of religion, arguing that it would "make it a crime to follow God's command to be Good Samaritans."

[economystic]

Tomato farmer Chad Smith looks over his crop on Chandler Mountain in Steele, Ala., Monday, Oct. 3, 2011. The impact of the Alabama Immigration Law will prevent Smith from being able to fully harvest his crop, costing his family nearly $200,000 in revenue and may put them out of business permanently. (AP Photo)

CHAD YOU MADE YOUR BED (BY HIRING ILLEGALS TO WORK FOR YOU) NOW YOU HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT. (IF YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN HIRING LEGAL CITIZENS IN THE FIRST PLACE AND PAYING THEM A DECENT WAGE AND BENEFITS ETC THEN THEY WOULD STILL BE THERE WORKING FOR YOU TODAY)