University of Alabama : Resisting Alabama Immigration Law : Alabama Universities, Professors, Associations, Religious Denominations - The distinction between arrest, criminalization and prosecution is described by law professors Gabriel Chin and Marc Miller in their review of HB56

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Law Professor Gabriel Chin of University of California at Davis ( former professor in Arizona ) has been actively in combat against these Draconian Immigration Laws : Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, etc....

According to Gabriel Chin : “Local police are authorized by federal statute to arrest deserters from active duty service in the United States military.

However, this does not imply that states and localities are invited to establish rules for military discipline of active duty troops and try them in their courts.”

University of Alabama

HB56-1, Protests-0

October 2, 2011


University of Alabama : HB56-1, Protests-0


Some excerpts :

This controversial law has been met with opposition at UAB, where many students rallied together before the law was to be enacted. This past Wednesday, SALSA (the Spanish and Latino Student Association) and the ACIJ (Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice) organized a peaceful march through the streets of Southside that started at the Hill University Center on campus.

As they walked up University Boulevard, through 5 Points and back to campus there was yelling and horns honking in approval. “Si se puede!” and “This is what democracy looks like, this is what democracy sounds like!” were a few of the many chants heard as the students and advocates marched.

Religious leaders have expressed their displeasure with this law, including Reverend Matt Lacey of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church. He was at Wednesday’s rally where he spoke to the crowd.

“I am a Christian first, and an American second.” Lacey said, “We want to repeal this law. It is unjust, it is far too harsh, and it goes against what Jesus teaches us.”

Guillermo Villanueva, a Sophomore Business Science major at UAB, felt that HB56 was wrong because the law invites local authorities to racial profiling. “Legally you can harass someone for looking different,” he says.

He continued saying, “An illegal person doesn’t look any different from me.”

Samarah Mohammad, a Freshman Biology major whose parent’s and older brother immigrated from Palestine during the conflict in the Middle East said this about the bill, referring to herself and her younger siblings, “Not only is it effecting immigrants, it’s effecting people who are not immigrants.”

While the majority of the bill has been upheld in the District Court, some issues have not been approved by Federal Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn of Federal District Court in Birmingham yet. These parts of the bill include making it a crime for an illegal immigrant to solicit work, making it a crime to transport or harbor an illegal immigrant, and barring illegal immigrants from attending public colleges.

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