Immigration Laws Having Unintended Consequences

Alabama's strict immigration law may result in fewer landscaping workers as legal Hispanic residents are leaving the state.

Alabama's strict new immigration law, intended to force illegal workers out of jobs, seems to be driving away many Hispanic landscape contractor employees, construction workers and roofers who are legal residents of the United States.

The state's new immigration law, the most strict in the nation, has resulted in many legal Hispanic workers fleeing the state because their family and friends don't have the proper papers and they fear they will be jailed.

''The main concern we have is that legal Hispanics seem to be leaving the state now,'' James Harwell, executive director of the Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association (ALNLA), said. ''We are not seeing this as a problem now, but we will probably see the consequences of this more in the spring.''

While it's not clear how many of an estimated 185,000 Hispanic people in the state have fled, one estimate figured as much one-fourth of the commercial building work force had left since the law was upheld, said Bill Caton, president of Associated General Contractors of Alabama. Commercial construction is a more than $7 billion-a-year industry in Alabama.

Harwell said the ultimate resolution to this issue should come from the Federal government, noting that the country needs a strong guest worker program.

E-Verify as a Solution?

The map shows the states that have E-Verify laws on the books. States shaded in red have E-Verify laws that apply to private employers, the blue states denote system use for state agencies and state contractors, and states shade in gray show system use for state contractors. Photo Credits: ImmigrationWorks USA

As states grapple with the illegal immigration debate, the E-Verify system is seen by some as a way to maintain landscape industry worker numbers.

''We do not have a problem with rules such as E-Verify,'' James Harwell, executive director of the Alabama Nursery and Landscape Association (ALNLA), said. ''We need to follow state laws.''

More than 288,000 employers, large and small, across the United States use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of their employees, with about 1,200 new businesses signing up each week. While participation in E-Verify is voluntary for most businesses, some companies may be required by state law or federal regulation to use E-Verify. As a result of the new law, Alabama requires E-Verify usage.

Harwell said the association has conducted educational sessions for its members of the use of E-Verify, adding that the association has no problems with forcing illegal workers out of jobs.

While Harwell embraces E-Verify use, California has recently prohibited the state, cities and counties from mandating that private employers use E-Verify.

''As a nation, we are in such desperate need of immigration reform,'' said Sara Sadhwani, strategy director for the California Immigrant Policy Center. ''While a handful of cities in California and a handful of states across the country have moved to mandate the use of this kind of program, it's very misguided.''

The state ban received broad support, including the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Farm Bureau Federation, which questioned the accuracy of the databases used by the federal system.

ICE: Record Number Deported

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials recently reported that nearly 400,000 individuals have been deported during the fiscal year that ended in September, the largest number of removals in the agency's history.

The escalating numbers highlight trends that underscore the administration's focus on removing individuals from the country that fall into priority areas for enforcement. These priorities include the identification and removal of those that have broken criminal laws, threats to national security, recent border crossers, repeat violators of immigration law and immigration court fugitives.

• Of the 396,906 individuals removed from the United States, nearly 55 percent or 216,698 of the people removed were convicted of felonies or misdemeanors.
• 1,119 aliens were convicted of homicide.
• 5,848 aliens were convicted of sexual offenses.
• 44,653 aliens were convicted of drug related crimes.
• 35,927 aliens were convicted of driving under the influence.

Source: Department of Homeland Security