USA Immigration News

Alabama Governor Signed Immigration Law Revisions

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley on May 18, 2012 signed House Bill 658, which includes revisions to simplify and clarify Alabama's existing immigration law, commonly known as House Bill 56.

House Bill 658 aims to make House Bill 56 better. According to Governor Bentley the new bill will ease burdens on legal residents and businesses while maintaining the goal that "if you live and work in Alabama, you must do so legally."

To design a new bill to revise the existing U.S. immigration law, the Alabama government cooperated closely with legislators over the last several months. As Governor Bentley stated, he did support the set of revisions that passed in the full House of Representatives and the Senate Judiciary Committee, but not all the changes in the bill were ultimately passed by the full Senate. However, the bill did include most of the suggested revisions and represented substantial progress in simplifying the existing bill while keeping it strong.

The Governor also expressed his concerns about some points such as the school provision in the original law, and some certain aspects of the new provision in House Bill 658 that called for expending state funds to create a public database with the names of illegal immigrants.

"However, as we worked with legislators during the special session, it became clear that the Legislature did not have the appetite for addressing further revisions at this time," he said, "In an effort to remove the distraction of immigration from the other business of the special session, I decided to sign House Bill 658 and allow the progress made in the legislation to move forward. We can now also move forward on the other business of the special session."

"This bill reduces burdens on legal residents as they conduct government transactions. The bill also reduces burdens on businesses while still holding them accountable to hire legal workers. These changes make this a stronger bill."