{"id":49,"date":"2013-11-01T00:13:05","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T07:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.244.209\/~canadiu3\/?p=49"},"modified":"2014-01-15T07:38:13","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T15:38:13","slug":"settlement-ends-lawsuits-challenging-us-states-immigration-law-that-has-been-gutted-by-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2013\/11\/01\/settlement-ends-lawsuits-challenging-us-states-immigration-law-that-has-been-gutted-by-courts\/","title":{"rendered":"Settlement ends lawsuits challenging US state’s immigration law that has been gutted by courts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"122002rt5tai6kaz1rrkoo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.\u2014The state of Alabama agreed Tuesday to settle the remaining challenges over its toughest-in-the-nation crackdown against illegal immigration, which has mostly been gutted by federal court decisions.<\/p>\n

The state and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a proposed settlement that would end a federal lawsuit over the law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2011, and the state separately filed documents to end a similar suit filed by the Justice Department. Federal courts later blocked main sections, including a one-of-a-kind provision that public schools must check students\u2019 citizenship status.<\/p>\n

Courts have blocked key parts of similar immigration laws in Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina and other states.<\/p>\n

ACLU lawyer Cecillia Wang said the Alabama agreement also means a so-called \u201cshow me your papers\u201d provision that allowed police to ask for citizenship documents cannot lead to detentions, as many immigrants had feared.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall this is really a significant win for immigrant families in Alabama and anyone who cares about the rights of immigrants,\u201d said Wang, director of the ACLU\u2019s Immigrant Rights Project.<\/p>\n

The agreement permanently blocks sections of the law that were temporarily stopped by courts. The state also agreed to pay $350,000 in attorney fees and expenses for groups that sued to block the law.<\/p>\n

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has defended the law in court, and Gov. Robert Bentley, who signed the law, and other Republican supporters said it was needed to protect the rights and jobs of legal Alabama residents.<\/p>\n

Strange said court rulings voided parts of the law, forcing the settlement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is up to Washington to fulfil its responsibility to enforce the country\u2019s immigration laws,\u201d said Strange.<\/p>\n

Bentley had no immediate comment on the agreements.<\/p>\n

The deal followed the Supreme Court\u2019s decision earlier this year rejecting Alabama\u2019s appeal to revive parts of the law, which supporters and opponents billed as the nation\u2019s toughest against illegal immigration.\\<\/p>\n

The school checks never occurred because of legal challenges, and many immigrants who initially fled the state in fear of arrest under the document check provision returned to Alabama.<\/p>\n

Agricultural leaders were particularly critical of the law, which they said made it difficult to harvest crops because of a lack of migrant labour, but officials say those labour shortages eased as courts struck down sections of the act.<\/p>\n

The Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which was heavily involved in the legal challenges, said legislators should repeal the act now that the state has settled the lawsuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe warned the Legislature when they were debating HB 56 that if they passed this draconian law, we would sue in court and win,\u201d Kristi Graunke, an attorney with the organization, said in a statement. \u201cThat we have done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state of Alabama agreed Tuesday to settle the remaining challenges over its toughest-in-the-nation crackdown against illegal immigration, which has mostly been gutted by federal court decisions. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-immigration","mauthors-jay-reeves","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}