Deep South Reclaims Bigotry Title

Just when we thought no other state could beat Arizona as the champion of hatred, xenophobia and immigrant-bashing legislation, the Deep South reclaimed its title as the all-time champion of discrimination.

Imagine how the bigots in Georgia and Alabama must have felt when they saw bigots in Arizona grabbing all the headlines. They had to do something to prove they still can discriminate better than anyone.

And they have! The best example is the bill just signed into law by Republican Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama. It is a compilation of the most Draconian measures that have been introduced in states and municipalities across the country, including provisions that already have been found to be unconstitutional in federal court and are headed for the Supreme Court under appeal.

Its proponents and supporters boast about the fact that when the law takes effect Sept. 1, Alabama will have the nation's toughest immigration law. The word "compassion" is not in their vocabulary. They speak as if they are reclaiming their rightful place in the history of U.S. bigotry and discrimination.

"I campaigned for the toughest immigration laws, and I'm proud of the Legislature for working tirelessly to create the strongest immigration bill in the country," Bentley said after signing the legislation last week.

In the courts and on the streets, it looks as if a new civil rights movement will be needed in the Deep South.

Someday — in the near future, let's hope — we will remember Bentley and this period of history with the same shame we feel about former Alabama Gov. George Wallace for his fighting to keep African-Americans out of the University of Alabama in 1963.

The new Alabama law:

—Will allow police to detain anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally, opening the gates to widespread racial profiling against all immigrants, a provision of the Arizona law that has been blocked by the courts (though Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has vowed to appeal it in the Supreme Court).

—Will make it a crime for American citizens to knowingly transport or shelter anyone who is in the country illegally, forcing many Americans to choose between breaking the law and their loyalty to their undocumented friends and relatives. If you give shelter to an undocumented relative, for example, all in your household will have to live under Gestapo-like fear.

—Will impose penalties on businesses that knowingly employ undocumented immigrants, potentially hurting the state's economy by leaving their own farms without sufficient workers.

—Will require businesses to use the federal E-Verify database to confirm the immigration status of new employees, opening the way for discrimination against legal workers.

—Will require schools to verify whether students are in the country illegally, turning educators into immigration agents.

—Will make it a crime for landlords to rent to undocumented immigrants knowingly.

Surely, the Alabama law reaches new lows in mean-spirited legislation, beating that of not only Arizona but also neighboring Georgia, where, under a law passed last month and scheduled to take effect July 1, police also will be empowered to engage in racial profiling by checking immigration status and arresting suspected undocumented immigrants. Georgia's law also will penalize Americans who transport or harbor undocumented immigrants and businesses that employ them.

Though some 30 states have considered new laws targeting illegal immigration, most of these measures have failed when they have come up for a vote. But not in the Deep South, where Republican lawmakers are reclaiming the region's infamous legacy of bigotry.

These measures surely are unconstitutional in many ways. Yet their proponents insist on spending millions in appealing them all the way to the Supreme Court, where they believe the highly politicized conservative majority will side with them, as it did recently on another immigration measure allowing Arizona to crack down on employers who hire undocumented workers.

Proponents of these laws claim they have made sure they are constitutionally sound, but the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and several other groups are getting ready to challenge the Georgia and Alabama laws with the same righteous indignation with which they have been fighting Arizona. Other groups are organizing protest marches and economic boycotts against the two states.

With the re-emergence of institutionalized bigotry in the Deep South, a new civil rights movement also is beginning to emerge. And as African-Americans prevailed in the 1960s, today's immigrants also will overcome this new wave of racism in America.

When the Georgia and Alabama agricultural, landscaping and restaurant industries start hurting, when their crops begin to rot, when their yards grow weeds and when there is no one to wash restaurant dishes, immigrants shall overcome.

When other businesses that depend on immigrant workers start complaining that they can't get Americans to fill their toughest jobs, when taxpayers realize that their politicians are wasting millions on futile litigation that is discriminatory and unconstitutional, when enough American citizens protest against racial profiling and discrimination, that's when the Deep South's legacy of bigotry will be sent back into the pages of history.

To find out more about Miguel Perez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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