Saturday, July 9, 2011

SPLC Sues the State of Alabama

Press Release from the Southern Poverty Law Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a lawsuit against Alabama's new, draconian anti-immigrant law. The New York Times calls it "the most extreme" in the nation. It makes Arizona's anti-immigrant legislation look like child's play.

The Alabama law makes it a crime for anyone—citizen and non-citizen alike—to drive someone who is undocumented to church or a hospital. It requires school children to report on the immigration status of their parents. It even prevents refugees who have been granted asylum in our country from going to a state university. And, without question, it will lead to massive racial profiling and discourage victims of crime from cooperating with the police.

At the press conference held today, one of the SPLC's clients—a minister—said that the law "violates core values of various faiths because it criminalizes acts of love and hospitality."

The law reminds one of the Jim Crow era. It will create an underclass of people who are denied equal protection under the law, just like the racist laws that stained Alabama and the Deep South for many decades.

Like the racists laws we've fought in the past, we cannot let this one stand.

Thank you for your support and dedication to justice. I'll keep you updated as this important legal battle progresses.

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