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Alabama Tackled Illegal Immigration and Unemployment Started Dropping
Townhall.com ^ | February 25, 2012 | Gina Loudon

Posted on 02/25/2012 5:37:58 AM PST by Kaslin

Alabama politicians ran on the issue of reforming illegal immigration in the state, mostly in response to an outcry from citizens hurt or unemployed by the problem of Illegal Immigration. 

They kept their promise. 

Last session, the Alabama Legislature led by Senator Scott Beason (R-Gardendale) sponsored and passed House Bill 56 that essentially upheld the federal law already on the books.  Governor Bentley signed the bill.  The beast was loosed…

National social welfare advocates descended on Alabama like vultures on road kill and the stage was set for an ugly battle.  Self identified “religious groups” (whose faux religion is social liberalism) scared the “bejesus” out of unsuspecting (and under-informed) religious leaders who fell for the threats of arrest and worse if they were to comply with Alabama’s new law.  The main stream media, from NBC to Al-Jazeera, was more than happy to do the heavy lifting for the so-called religious groups opposing the bill.  Cries of racism, bigotry, and mayhem resonated with those who are generally susceptible to such rhetoric. 

Patriots rallied for the rule of law and held the politicians’ feet to the fire.  Speakers at the rally included mothers of Hispanic babies, victims of crimes of illegal immigration, and those exploited by the failed permissive policy on immigration.  Politicians, especially Alabama Senators, listened to the people, and stood firm on their promise to keep the law in place that upholds the rule of law.

The Department of Justice sued, but the bill was upheld in court.  

Immediately after the bill (HB 56) was passed, the unemployment rate began to drop.  Since the bill passed last legislative session, in some counties, unemployment has dropped dramatically. For example, unemployment has gone from 10%-6.9% in the former illegal immigrant hotbed of Marshall County, Alabama.

But social liberals don’t tire easily.  Fueled by the throngs of union-funded Occupiers, those opposed to the rule of law threatened that the crops would rot in the fields, because no legal workers would work under the conditions and for the pay that the illegal immigrants would.  

But they were wrong. 

In fact, Alabamians were starving for jobs and the supply was choked by a massive influx of illegals who swallowed up the jobs as they came available.  Legal Alabamians stood in line for blocks at job fairs hoping for their turn to work the job previously dominated by illegals. 

It worked.  Alabama went back to work.

Further, the same patriots who held the politicians’ feet to the fire with their rallies, local talk, and blogs, protected employees under the law, while the opposition supported the contention that people, any people, should sweat in the fields, with no protection from standard employment  law, or fair wages. In essense, we did the job that the unions wouldn't do.   

Liberals had to face the irony and hypocrisy of their dichotomy that what they supported was a permanent underclass without the rights all men should enjoy. While conservatives championed the positive economic impact as the heavy social welfare burdens began to ease, the crowded emergency rooms thinned, and unemployment continued to drop. 

“In the last three months alone, we’ve seen an unprecedented drop of 1.7 percentage points,” said Alabama Republican Gov. Robert Bentley in a January 20 statement.

Alabama House Majority Leader Rep. Micky Hammon (R-Decatur) said the law is replacing illegal immigrant labor with Alabamians.

“Despite how desperately illegal immigrant sympathizers have tried to portray this law as somehow harmful to our state’s economy, the truth is more Alabamians are working today thanks in part to our decision to crack down on illegal immigration.”

Alabama’s unemployment rate has shrunk and they have added 35,400 new jobs since January of 2011. 

Other states should take notice.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; US: Alabama
KEYWORDS: aliens; employment; immigration; jobs

1 posted on 02/25/2012 5:37:59 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
National social welfare advocates descended on Alabama like vultures on road kill and the stage was set for an ugly battle.

This is merely an aberration. Using Alabama as an example of how to go about solving the undocumented worker issue would not be proper. Racist laws such as that in Alabama should be struck down and never be allowed to be enacted in other States.

Do I really need an /sarcasm?

2 posted on 02/25/2012 6:04:41 AM PST by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: Kaslin

And other benefits will follow as the paychecks going to AL residents will 1) generate taxes and 2) spur the local economy rather than be sent to Mexico.


3 posted on 02/25/2012 6:36:14 AM PST by O6ret
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To: Kaslin

Eliminating the minimum wage laws would have an even greater impact. The unemployment rate for the 16 to 24 demographic would plummet.


4 posted on 02/25/2012 7:07:09 AM PST by W. W. SMITH (Obama is Romney lite)
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To: W. W. SMITH

Just curious-what’s the least YOU would work for?


5 posted on 02/25/2012 7:24:47 AM PST by SendShaqtoIraq
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To: Kaslin
In the last three months alone, we’ve seen an unprecedented drop of 1.7 percentage points,” said Alabama Republican Gov. Robert Bentley in a January 20 statement.

Hey, all you amnesty loving, illegal coddling politicians! Be afraid. Be very afraid.

6 posted on 02/25/2012 8:43:55 AM PST by VRW Conspirator (Neo-communist equals Neo-fascist)
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To: Kaslin; Zakeet; mickie
When I was a kid, summer jobs were plentiful. I worked at various times in a drug store, at a soda fountain, a couple of bakeries and the laundry room of a hospital (ugh).

Nowadays, our teen agers who are ready, willing and able to take summer work are frozen out. The jobs are filled by immigrants, legal or illegal. Black kids are particularly hard-hit.

The last time I patronized a fast food joint was in a Burger King drive-in where the window clerk couldn't answer a question of mine because she didn't understand English except for rote phrases. That did it for me.

At any rate, with the deteriorating economy, jobs for native-born American young folks in late spring will be virtually nill because of unchecked, unthinking, unimagineable immigration.....and a nation with hundreds of thousands of restless, unemployed, bitter yutes milling about in a hot summer is not a good thing.

Leni

7 posted on 02/25/2012 8:48:52 AM PST by MinuteGal
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To: MinuteGal
You are exactly right. Not so long ago a young guy right out of high school could go to a resturant an be a busboy or waiter or to a construction site and get work as a helper to a carpenter or dry-waller (sp?) and earn some money while getting experience working. Who have those same jobs now.....
8 posted on 02/25/2012 11:23:24 AM PST by djone
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To: SendShaqtoIraq

Just curious-what’s the least YOU would work for?””’

FYI:

On 2 occasions, when I was looking for a job, I offered to work for ONE full week without pay if they decided not to keep me.

This was over a 40+ year period.

IF they kept me, I got the hourly wage I wanted & I got paid for the week I had already put in.

Both times, I got the job. In the second one, I got the wage I wanted & 3 raises within 6 weeks.

I was an honor student in high school & I was a 4.0 student in the accounting classes I took at a community college.

I was qualified as a full-charge bookkeeper & I was game enough to make this kind of offer.

Most kids today have NO skills & are pitiful about work ethics.


9 posted on 02/25/2012 12:51:59 PM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: philman_36; John Semmens
Do I really need an /sarcasm?

I really wish that you would have left this off your post. I would love to see who would have taken the bait. That's why I'm on John Semmens ping list. He gets them every time.

10 posted on 02/25/2012 1:02:48 PM PST by houeto (Mitt Romney - A Whiter Shade of FAIL)
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To: philman_36; John Semmens
Do I really need an /sarcasm?

I really wish that you would have left this off your post. I would love to see who would have taken the bait. That's why I'm on John Semmens ping list. He gets them every time.

11 posted on 02/25/2012 1:03:08 PM PST by houeto (Mitt Romney - A Whiter Shade of FAIL)
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To: Kaslin
Other states should take notice.

We have. I'm next door in Mississippi. Guess where they went. We're trying to pass similar laws as we speak. I see a domino effect about to take place.

12 posted on 02/25/2012 1:08:38 PM PST by houeto (Mitt Romney - A Whiter Shade of FAIL)
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To: ridesthemiles

Didn’t answer the question, did you? Again, what is the least amount you would work for? What is the least amount you could support yourself on? And don’t tell me you could do it on less than minimum wage, because I make more than that and I cannot afford to live alone or replace my falling apart car.


13 posted on 02/25/2012 2:36:54 PM PST by SendShaqtoIraq
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To: Kaslin

bttt


14 posted on 02/25/2012 9:05:47 PM PST by Pelham (Vultures for Romney. We pluck your carcass)
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To: SendShaqtoIraq

I had to shut my business down in 2008 due to the economy, and take a job for the first time in thirteen years.

Before I did so, I cut my overhead mercilessly, sold vehicles, sold a lake house, refi’d the house to reduce the payment, you name it.

So, with only a house payment that was considerably lower than it had been and no other debt, with a practically new paid off car and a truck I inherited, I calculated that I could hold it together on no less than $15.00 per hour, and that would be a struggle. Less than that, I would be going in the hole every month.

I did find a job that paid more than that, I was fortunate. I would have taken a job paying less than that if I had to do so, but I would have had to find another source of income to supplement it, somehow.

So, what’s the least you would work for, since you seem fixated upon the subject?


15 posted on 02/25/2012 9:22:39 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: SendShaqtoIraq

The minimum wage laws have held wages below what they would be without those laws. Would you pick tomatoes at 15 dollars an hour, that is what illegals are being paid to do those jobs that Americans won’t do.

Crops rotting in the field did not happen. In every instance of illegals vacating a state, there where Americans lined up looking for those jobs.

I, at 64, would pick tomatoes for $15, as hard as I’m hurting due to Obama $10 an hour. Now some one 16 years old with no work experience, $5 an hour to start, with either a raise or a firing with in three months.


16 posted on 02/29/2012 9:14:47 AM PST by W. W. SMITH (Obama is Romney lite)
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