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http://cei.org/op-eds-articles/alabamas-immigration-law-train-wreck
Alabama's Immigration Law Is a Train Wreck
By Alex Nowrasteh
September 02, 2011
Originally published in Fox News
On Monday, Federal District Judge Sharon Blackburn temporarily enjoined
Alabama’s controversial immigration law (HB 56) for one month, to have
enough time to address the numerous challenges to the law. Regardless of
its constitutionality, HB 56 is decidedly bad news for Alabama,
penalizing businesses and farmers in a struggling economy.
Read the language. Section 15 sets out punishments for employers who
knowingly or intentionally hire undocumented workers. For a first
offense, the employer must fire all undocumented workers, sign an
affidavit promising not to repeat the infraction, and have his business
licenses suspended for 10 business days.
For a second offense, the government will revoke all of the business’s
licenses and permits needed to operate in the location where the offense
took place. For a third offense, the government permanently revokes all
of the business' licenses from all of its locations.
If that sounds like an egregious attack on entrepreneurship, that is
because it is. If a small business with one location commits a second
offense and hires an undocumented worker, all of its business licenses
are permanently revoked, thus shutting down that business and destroying
someone’s livelihood. For a third offense, an entire chain of stores
could be destroyed, throwing numerous Alabamans out of work.
Businesses aren’t the only ones affected. Farmers in Alabama will be
devastated by HB 56. Alabama’s farming industry accounts for more than
$5 billion a year, and undocumented immigrants are a major source of
labor. In neighboring Georgia, which passed a law similar to HB 56
earlier this year, farmers face severe labor shortages. The Georgia law
scared off low skilled farm workers and now the state’s farmers are
suffering.
Continued shortages of workers in South Georgia could put at risk $300
million of fruits and vegetables already planted, according to the
Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association. Much of the agriculture
industry depends on low skilled workers, and many farmers cannot raise
wages significantly because they have low profit margins to begin with.
For many of them, it makes more sense to stop planting than to pay
higher wages.
Georgia tried to get around the agricultural labor problems by
conscripting criminal offenders and probationers to work in the fields.
The probationers could keep not pace with the Hispanic workers, reported
Fox News. On one cucumber farm the fastest probationer filled only 134
buckets a day. Some filled as few as 20. Many of the Mexican and
Guatemalan laborers filled 200 buckets before lunch.
Benito Mendez, crew leader for a group of Mexican and Guatemalan pickers
said that his experience with the probationers and criminals was so bad
that, "It's not going to work . . . No way. If I'm going to depend on
the probation people, I'm never going to get the crops up."
As George Mason University economics professor Alexander Tabarrok
observed, “[Georgia] turned good workers into criminals and turned
criminals into bad workers, losing on both ends of the deal.”
In Alabama, the state agriculture commission says squash, tomatoes, and
other produce are rotting in the fields for lack of workers who are
fleeing ahead of HB 56. If it is upheld, the problem will worsen.
Construction is another industry in Alabama that is getting pummeled by
HB 56. James Latham, chief executive of WAR Construction Inc., in
Tuscaloosa, is concerned that the exodus of undocumented workers will
slow down his construction projects. He told the Wall Street Journal,
"We are seeing smaller crews, and work taking longer to get
accomplished, due to less available workers." Latham is also president
of Alabama Associated General Contractors and said that his business
isn’t the only one affected.
America’s economy is suffering mightily with an unemployment rate above
9 percent. Many economists think we are on the edge of a double-dip
recession if not already suffering through it.
Immigration rules and restrictions like Alabama's HB 56 make things
worse by targeting the business that are the engines of economic growth
and job creation.
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