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Immigration Law Case Study

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aw enforcement to demand proof of immigration status from anyone whom they have reasonable suspicion to believe is unauthorized. This law also criminalizes actions such as (a) living in Arizona without lawful immigration status, (b) failing to carry immigration documentation, and (c) transporting or housing and unauthorized individual (Detention Watch Network, 2010). Under the law S. B. 1070, undocumented immigrants may be given a misdemeanor charge for trespassing, a penalty that includes a mandatory prison sentence of 20 days, obligation to pay jail fees, and deportation (Miller, 2010).
According to Miller (2010), “the stage was set for S. B. 1070 in 2005,when the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Streamline, a federal immigration- …show more content…

B.) 56, a law as controversial as Arizona’s S. B. 1070. The United States Department of Justice posted a news briefing on their website describing the Alabama H. B. 56 immigration law. Their posting stated
Alabama’s law is designed to affect virtually every aspect of an unauthorized immigrant’s daily life, from employment to housing to transportation to entering into and enforcing contracts to going to school. H. B. 56 further criminalizes mere unlawful presence and, like Arizona’s law, expands the opportunities for Alabama police to push aliens toward incarceration for various new immigration crimes by enforcing an immigration status verification system (United States Department of Justice, …show more content…

This occurred a few days after a Federal District Court Judge made a decision that allowed most of this new law’s provisions to go into effect. Under the new 11th Circuit ruling, some of the provisions of H. B. 56 that are still in effect include Section 12: requires local law enforcement to request verification of immigration status if reasonable suspicion that person is undocumented, Section 18: requires law enforcement to request verification of immigration status from persons arrested for driving without a license, Section 27: invalidates contracts entered into when one individual knows the other is undocumented, and Section 30: makes it a felony for undocumented immigrants to conduct a business transaction with the state including applying for a driver’s license (“Despite Department of Justice's Relentless Attack,” 2011). Other provisions of the H.B. 56 have been temporarily blocked. These include Section 10: states that undocumented individuals who do not comply with federal registration laws may be charged with a misdemeanor, and Section 28: requires public schools to gather information regarding students’ immigration status and submit this data to the state (“Despite Department of Justice's Relentless Attack,”

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