Demonstrators gathered outside the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery to call for the passage of the DREAM Act and protest against the state’s new anti-illegal immigration law, regarded as one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country.

The new illegal immigration law known as HB 56 was passed by the Republican Governor Robert J Bentley in June.
There were many protests against the law and in September a federal judge upheld some portions of the law but temporarily stayed others pending further review in the courts where the judge blocked a section that would have barred illegal immigrants from enrolling in public colleges and universities.

But a ruling by US District judge Sharon Blackburn upheld a controversial section that requires police to check the residency status of suspected illegal immigrants during traffic stops.

Protestors tried to block traffic in the streets by sitting in the middle of the road across from the Capitol and first White House of Confederacy, but the police had already blocked the street and rerouted traffic elsewhere and the protestors could not cause as much disruption as planned.

Other protestors staged a sit-in on the floor of the lobby of the Alabama State House.