Posted on 10/10/2011 5:39:48 AM PDT by upchuck
Foley, Ala. — Trailer by trailer, yard sale by yard sale, and pew by empty pew, a poor but tightknit immigrant community on Alabama’s breezy Gulf Coast is rapidly disintegrating.
This time it is not a tornado or hurricane uprooting families and scattering them to the winds. It is a new state law, largely upheld last week by a federal district judge, that seeks to drive illegal immigrants from the state by curtailing many of their rights, punishing anyone who knowingly employs, houses or assists them, and requiring schools and police to verify immigrants’ legal status.
Other states, including Arizona, Georgia and Colorado, have passed similar laws in the past several years in a growing trend by state legislatures to crack down on illegal immigration within their borders in the absence of comprehensive federal action. But Alabama’s new law is the toughest passed so far, and it is the only one to withstand federal lawsuits and other legal challenges, allowing it to take virtually full effect.
Across Alabama, news of the court ruling has swiftly spread panic and chaos among working-class areas where legal and illegal immigrant families from Mexico and Central America — as many as 150,000 people, by some estimates — live and work at jobs their bosses say local residents largely refuse to do.
In Foley, a sprawling seaside resort town where hundreds of Hispanic immigrants work in restaurants and seafood industries, many families last week were taking their children out of school, piling their furniture into trucks, offering baby clothes and bicycles on front lawns for sale and saying tearful goodbyes to neighbors and co-workers they might never see again.
“This is the saddest thing I have experienced in my 18 years as a priest,” said the Rev. Paul Zoghby,... "It is a human tragedy.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Acc to wikipedia there's about 7600 people there and less than 5% are Hispanic/Latino, so we're talking about less than 400. However, the city's website says this number is about 2000 (and total pop is around 14000). At http://www.city-data.com/city/Foley-Alabama.html the number of Hispanic is 680, and all of 282 people are "foreign born." Unemployment, 8.4%. From city-data.com:
"Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2009: 26.5% (9.2% for White Non-Hispanic residents, 71.7% for Black residents, 22.7% for Hispanic or Latino residents, 36.1% for American Indian residents, 0.0% for other race residents, 80.3% for two or more races residents)"
Don't know why the cityoffoley.org has nearly twice the total population of the other two sources.
Sets them up for a larger slice of State and Fed funding?
So if the illegals leave, job opportunities open up for the American citizens who live there and are unemployed?
Win - Win!!!
Ya, like Texas... pretty soon, Texans are going to start complaining about illegal immigrants taking jobs Texans won’t do... somehow that didn’t come out right... Pretty soon Texans are going to start complaining about illegal immigrants’ children getting benefits they used to get as illegal immigrants... No not that either... pretty soon Texas will be annexed by Mexico and gringos will have to apply for work visas to work and live in Texas... Bingo!!
Pay a decent wage and I'll bet those local residents would be happy to do the jobs.
I hope other states do the exact same thing as Alabama did and the problem would start solving itself.
“This time it is not a tornado or hurricane uprooting families and scattering them to the winds. It is a new state law, largely upheld last week by a federal district judge, that seeks to drive illegal immigrants from the state by curtailing many of their rights, punishing anyone who knowingly employs, houses or assists them, and requiring schools and police to verify immigrants’ legal status.”
No bias here at all. It would be too much to expect her to view this as a successful law, reducing the burden on American taxpayers and already stressed state services by eliminating the need to support, feed and educate a large number of people who have no right to be here.
It's not a tragedy Father, it's the 10th Amendment at work. Those families will be welcomed in other states. Let those states deal with things like drunk driving deaths, local unemployment, decaying schools, crime, and public health crises due to the spread of communicable diseases like tuberculosis.
“This is the saddest thing I have experienced in my 18 years as a priest”.
Really?!! This is the SADDEST? They aren’t dying, Father, they are simply moving to other states (like here in Maryland) or back to where they come from (Mexico). Sheesh!
Alabama's legislators paved the way. Now the good people of Mississippi can pass similar laws. Let them flee to all the blue states; they deserve it.
” It should be pointed out that Alabama isn’t infringing on anybody’s rights, because non-citizens don’t have rights under the Constitution.”
What part of the word “illegal” don’t people understand ?
What part of “Un-documented worker” makes it permissible to drive a car , or work in a foreign land ?
“I am worried about here in Mississippi now. We have enough illegals as it is.
Alabama’s legislators paved the way. Now the good people of Mississippi can pass similar laws. Let them flee to all the blue states; they deserve it. “
Unfortunatley , they will relocate to states that are about one gas tank away.
"seeks to drive illegal immigrants from the state by curtailing many of their rights".... hey jackass, they are illegal. They don't HAVE most of the rights of citizens.
"news of the court ruling has swiftly spread panic and chaos among working-class areas....".... Hey jackass, I know you want us to feel sorry for them, but I personally take great joy in the panic and chaos of illegals.
"many families last week were taking their children out of school, piling their furniture into trucks, offering baby clothes and bicycles on front lawns for sale and saying tearful goodbyes to neighbors and co-workers they might never see again."..... how heart-rending. NOT. Jesus, can you be ANY more biased?
"“This is the saddest thing I have experienced in my 18 years as a priest,” said the Rev. Paul Zoghby,... "It is a human tragedy.”"... why no sooner did I ask if you could be any more biased, and you managed to trump yourself. Keep looking for ONLY quotes that support your position, jackass.
THIS IS NOT A NEWS ARTICLE. IT IS AN OPINION PIECE.
That should, state-by-state, eventually get them to some welcoming "sanctuary city" where the DemocRATs can have them. Of course, unless some alderman's child gets killed by a drunk driver, the city will continue to suffer under the weight of the illegals.
Ditto for Tennessee.
I predict that more states will copy Alabama’s law & that WILL send the illegals back across the southern border they invaded. It can’t happen soon enough.
Another thread discussed how a chicken processing plant in Alabama lost a big bunch of workers that were illegals & the applications & lines to take over the jobs was huge & contained both white & black applicants.
Ping!
Why don’t these people understand, it’s not the immigrant that people don’t like, it’s the people who come here illegally? And then feed off our system. I just don’t get it. It’s against the law! Thank you ALABAMA! my home state, I’m proud of you!! ROLL TIDE!!
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