Alabama Immigration Laws Take Effect

I posted this on my Facebook earlier today with the description, "i have no words." I still don't. Emotions that come up are anger and frustration. The anti-immigration laws put forth by Alabama have caused businesses to act, below is one example.

Alabama Law Makes It A Felony For Undocumented Immigrants To Have Water At Their Homes

By Amanda Peterson Beadle

        At least one utility company in Alabama posted a sign informing its customers that a section of Alabama’s extreme anti-immigrant law prohibits them from providing water service to undocumented immigrants. According to the sign at Allgood Water Works in Blount County, Alabama, customers must have “an Alabama driver’s license or an Alabama picture ID card on file” by the date that the immigration law went into effect; otherwise, they risked losing their water service.

Sadly, the picture for Alabama’s immigrants is even grimmer than this sign suggests. Indeed, under one provision of the state’s immigration law, HB 56, it is a felony for an undocumented immigrant to even attempt to do business with Alabama’s state-run water agencies:

An alien not lawfully present in the United States shall not enter into or attempt to enter into a business transaction with the state or a political subdivision of the state and no person shall enter into a business transaction or attempt to enter into a business transaction on behalf of an alien not lawfully present in the United States. [...]

A violation of this section is a Class C felony.

Read the rest of the article here.