Alabama

ACLU Joins in Briefing Members of Congress on the Implications of Arizona v. U.S.

By Laura W. Murphy, Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:19pm

Today we let federal lawmakers know that Arizona’s racial profiling law, S.B. 1070, is about much more than just the state of Arizona and its immigrants. It’s about how we see ourselves as a nation.

The Verdict is Out: Why States Are Already Shifting Away from Alabama and Arizona's Failed Anti-Immigrant Experiment

By Jonathan Blazer, ACLU at 5:43pm

In state after state, legislatures that had vowed to adopt sweeping new immigration restrictions are now taking pause. What happened?

Stopping South Carolina from Sharing Alabama's Fate

By Cecillia Wang, ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project at 7:37pm

The fate of civil liberties in South Carolina will be decided by year’s end. Today, a coalition of South Carolinians and civil rights organizations went to federal district court in Charleston to stop the last anti-immigrant law passed this year.

Like its shameful predecessors, Arizona’s SB 1070 and Alabama’s HB 56, South Carolina’s law would turn police officers and sheriff’s deputies into roving immigration agents who are authorized to demand papers from anyone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant.

Help From Washington: Members of Congress See Firsthand the Damage of Alabama’s H.B. 56 And Speak Out

By Sandhya Bathija, Washington Legislative Office at 4:21pm

Today, a congressional delegation traveled to Alabama to see first-hand the devastating effects of H.B. 56.

Some Families Flee, Others Stay Behind and Live in Fear

By Vesna Jaksic, ACLU at 4:50pm

During a visit to Alabama last week, many families told me that they now live in constant fear and are scared to go to work, school or the grocery store.

For One Family, Alabama Anti-Immigrant Law a Fate Worse than Possible Death

By Vesna Jaksic, ACLU at 5:10pm

Last month, Luis Robledo accompanied a Spanish-speaking woman and her young son to a medical appointment in Birmingham. Both are HIV-positive and had to go in for a regular check-up. But she is an undocumented immigrant, and had become increasingly concerned about Alabama’s harsh anti-immigrant law. A couple of weeks ago, she took her child — a U.S. citizen — and moved back to Guatemala.

New Chance for Justice in Alabama

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 10:00am

This week we got the welcome news that the state of Alabama will not appeal a ruling ordering a new trial for ACLU client Montez Spradley, who was sentenced to death despite inadequate and very weak evidence, after his trial judge rejected the jury’s 10-2 vote for a life sentence .

As we’ve written before, Spradley, a young African-American man, has always vigorously maintained his innocence in the 2004 murder of a 58-year-old white grandmother in Birmingham, Alabama. The prosecution's case against Spradley was alarmingly thin and riddled with inconsistencies, and in ordering a new trial the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals found that much of it was "improperly admitted."

Shame on Alabama

By Molly Lauterback, Immigrants' Rights Project at 5:31pm

In the six days since Alabama's extreme anti-immigrant law has been in effect, the impact on communities across the state has been chilling.

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