Opponents of Alabama's immigration law gather for a rally outside the State House in Montgomery in February as the Legislature started its 2012 session. (AP Photo/Dave Martin) Alabama never had a serious problem with undocumented residents. As one newspaper said, the state's toughest-in-the-nation immigration law is a solution searching for a problem.
But that didn't stop Alabama lawmakers from going full speed with an immigration law designed to make everyday life for undocumented residents so difficult and uncomfortable they would self-deport.
It's a terrible law on so many levels -- cruel, mean-spirited and overreaching. The law has had a negative impact on farming, construction and economic development.
And now, a coalition of civil rights organizations and labor unions are going to create more trouble for the state, all because we dare defend our wrongs.
The coalition will spend advertising dollars discouraging potential visitors from coming to the state. The coalition also will discourage businesses from locating here. I'm not much for these kinds of boycotts, but we brought this problem onto ourselves.
Lawmakers could have passed a reasonable law to discourage undocumented workers from being employed here, focused on the federal E-Verify system. But that wasn't good enough. Instead, our law requires police to do immigration status checks when they have a reasonable suspicion somebody may not be documented. That's a recipe for profiling, plain and simple. Schools are required to check the immigration status of their students and those students' parents. It's difficult for immigrants to conduct even simple business.
Led by Wade Henderson, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the group said it expects to publish ads outside of Alabama, most likely in one or two national publications. The coalition said it would also ask any organization that has planned to have its national meeting in the state not to do so.
"Alabama has spent millions in outreach to promote Alabama as a safe environment and a desirable location to spend your summer tourism dollar," Henderson said. "We know that not to be true."
We know the immigration law is having a serious impact on the state, both in revenue and reputation. The immigration law will cost the state between $2.3 billion and $10.8 billion in annual gross domestic product, based on estimates that 40,000 to 80,000 undocumented workers would flee, according to a 2011 study by University of Alabama economist Samuel Addy.
We have nobody to blame but Gov. Robert Bentley and the Legislature for this fiasco. What do you think? This week's Views poll wants to know. Vote below. The results and a selection of comments will be published in Sunday's Viewpoints section.
Also, we can talk about this during our weekly live chat Tuesday at 1 p.m.
The harsh immigration law is costing us much more than the so-called problem it's supposed to solve. We should not be so hard-headed we can't understand that.
Follow Joey Kennedy on Twitter: @joeykennedy