This fall, Americans from across our nation celebrated the dedication of a new memorial in Washington, D.C. to the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In his immortal words, Dr. King spoke of living in a nation where his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ”
Sadly, Dr. King’s dream has not yet been realized. With the introduction of laws in Georgia (HB 87) and Alabama (HB 56), we have seen the emergence of a new era of Jim Crow laws targeting our nation’s Latino community, setting our nation back significantly in the pursuit of racial justice and equality for all.
Georgia’s law gives local police the authority to detain any citizen suspected of being an immigrant to check their immigration status. This means that anyone who simply looks Latino could be subject to having to produce papers that prove their citizenship. Businesses would be required to use a federal electronic verification system before hiring Latino workers or risk losing their licenses.
In Alabama, the law takes an even more sinister approach. In addition to the Georgia provisions, the Alabama law requires schools to check the status of new students when they enroll. This flies in the face of federal law, which not only designates children of immigrants who are born on U.S. soil to be American citizens but also forbids the denial of education to any child in this country.
The chilling effect of this law on our nation’s Latino children is already evident: in the first two weeks of its implementation, Alabama schools have reported unusually high absentee rates among Latino children.
The law also goes further by making it a state crime for anyone who knowingly transports or houses an undocumented immigrant.
Many of the lawmakers who signed on to these bills claimed that their goal was to make more jobs available to American workers. But they failed to take into account that most Americans are not interested in filling the jobs that immigrants do – jobs that often feature hard labor and grueling conditions.
The result: In Georgia, farmers reported a loss of $140 million in crops due to the loss of migrant labor since the law began in July. They tried to fill the void with prison labor, but the effort stalled when they discovered that inmates were not as productive as Latino laborers.
In Alabama, efforts to rebuild areas devastated by this year’s storms have stalled due to the loss of Latino workers who make up a large part of the construction work force in that state. Contractors in Tuscaloosa, Alabama reported that, with the loss of their Latino workforce, they were unable to find replacements to repair the tornado damage.
Both of these laws owe their genesis to two anti-immigration bills passed in Arizona (SB 1070) last year. Fortunately, federal courts struck down the laws, but not before the state suffered extreme economic repercussions. A study conducted by Arizona-based economists for the Center for American Progress found that the Arizona economy took a hit of an estimated $141 million, including $45 million in hotel and lodging cancellations, and $96 million in lost commercial revenue. Fewer tourists meant the loss of 2,761 jobs, $253 million in economic output, and $9.4 million in tax revenues.
Fortunately, a number of states considering similar copycat bills opted out due to concerns over the potential economic fallout. A fiscal-impact analysis conducted by the state Senate in Kentucky projected a cost of $40 million a year to the state if anti-immigration legislation was passed. Tennessee, Florida, Indiana, and other states likewise rejected similar bills for economic reasons.
And just recently, a federal appeals court put certain provisions of the Alabama bill on hold, indicating that the Constitution does not permit states to override the federal government on issues related to foreign policy. Key aspects of the bill are still intact, however, including allowing police to detain those suspected of being in the country illegally or to arrest those who enter into any kind of contract with state or federal government, which includes things as basic as applying for a driver’s license or getting access to city or county water.
As Latinos, we cannot rely on the courts or the economic threat to stem the tide of these bills. We must speak out in our communities and through the ballot box against any attempt to promote racial profiling and override federal constitutional authority to enforce immigration law. We must support efforts by organizations like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Council of La Raza and other organizations that are fighting on the front lines to defeat bills like these that threaten the civil rights of Latinos. And, we must urge Congress to pass rational, comprehensive immigration reform that brings the thousands of immigrants out of the shadows and into a system of earned legalization.
As a nation, our best moments have occurred when people unite against injustice and discrimination – when we stand up for our neighbors. We should remind all Americans that not only is this the best path for our nation economically, but it is also the right path for achieving the dream that Dr. King imagined for all of us 48 years ago.
By: Mickey IbarraFounder, Latino Leaders Network, President, Ibarra Strategy Group
