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Crops rotting, families leaving, say critics of Alabama immigration law
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WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Farmers are reporting their fruit and vegetable pickers have fled, leaving crops to rot in the field, and principals say many students have withdrawn from school as even legal U.S. residents flee Alabama after a harsh new immigration law took effect in late September. Federal District Court Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn Sept. 28 lifted a temporary stay on the law, allowing most of its provisions to take effect. That includes a requirement that public schools inform the state and federal governments about which students cannot provide proof of legal residency in the U.S., and other provisions mandating that police check the papers of anyone they think might not be legal residents. Within days, schools reported many children had stopped coming to school. Farmers said they immediately lost many of the workers they had lined up to pick their crops, even those who are U.S. citizens or who have permission to work here. Mary Bauer, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said a hotline set up for questions about the law received nearly 2,000 calls in less than a week. In a teleconference Oct. 6, Bauer said the situation is quickly turning into a crisis. "Many of the calls are deeply disturbing and paint a grim picture of the aftermath of this ill-conceived law: people overwhelmed with fear; husbands who cannot take their wives to the hospital to give birth; sick people who refuse to go to the hospital to receive emergency care; thousands of terrorized children who are out of school; children who do go to school are subject to discriminatory treatment and harassment."
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