Dems Want Immigrants To Know Their Rights Under New Alabama Law

By Adrianna McGinley, Janie Amaya

Following their recent visit to Alabama, five House Democrats held a press conference Friday urging undocumented immigrants to educate themselves about their rights under new immigration rules in that state.

“If you have a U.S. citizen child, carry a copy of their birth certificate with you at all times…if your wife is a US citizen, carry a copy of your marriage certificate with you, if you have a mortgage, if you have a diploma, if you have papers that show you have roots in the U.S., carry copies of those with you,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) advised.

Gutierrez emphasized that while local law enforcement is being given the power to arrest undocumented immigrants, officers do not have the authority to deport individuals, and ICE agents are under executive orders to focus deportation resources on dangerous criminals.

Gutierrez said undocumented individuals with no criminal record have the right to prove their roots in the community, making them eligible for release under President Obama’s prosecutorial discretion order.

While the fight for comprehensive federal immigration reform appears to be on hold, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) said they will continue to fight against unjust state laws.

“I doubt very much that we’re going to see the reform that’s necessary in this Congress,” Lofgren said. “In the meanwhile, we [will] work together to make sure that the Constitution is applied when laws are unconstitutional.”

“Let’s stand up against those who make statements like ‘short of shooting them, I will do anything and everything to get them out of this country,’” said Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas). “Not today, not ever again in our country, will we tolerate the kind of rhetoric, the kind of harsh and mean spirited laws that are unconstitutional.”

Jackson-Lee and Lofgren said they support legislation deeming racial profiling as illegal, saying the U.S. cannot revert to institutionalized racism and segregation.

“If we come to a point where we frame ourselves in eras past, eras that occurred in Germany, where people had to be walking around with papers, there were tragedies that occurred because of someone’s ethnicity,” Jackson-Lee said. “I call upon the new South to reject that.”

“We who are from Alabama have fought too hard to overcome our history of intolerance to be taken back by this law,” said Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.).

The Hispanic Congressional Caucus scheduled a meeting for Thursday with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to discuss the impacts of the Alabama law.

“I, for one, plan to appeal to the Secretary, again, to personally…go to Alabama,” Gutierrez said. “Go and take ICE director John Mortan. I invite the President to go as well and see first hand what has happened in Alabama.”