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.

There is anticipation that the Democrats on Capitol Hill with the approval of the white house will re-introduce immigration reform as early as December. It is expected that the reforms would be a contrast issue to that of the Republicans whose main emphasis is on Border Security.

Though there are no confirmed plans regarding the reforms there are discussions on issues ranging from re-introducing comprehensive reform to the re- introduction of the Dream Act which was defeated last year.

They are also considering the possibility of combining the tough border security plans introduced by Republican senators John McCain and Jon Kyl with a form of the Dream Act.

With the presidential election coming up it is unlikely that a major immigration bill will pass Congress, but the move will help to get the support of the Hispanic voters who are losing faith in the Democrats and their immigration policy.
With the Hispanic vote playing a major role in his re- election bid, president Obama who gained 67% of their vote at the last presidential election is expected to pay considerable attention to the issues with the Republicans also making a major play with their policy on stronger border security.

California, one of the nation’s most populated states has passed a law to prevent private businesses and state and local governments from screening employees immigration status.

The law which has been forwarded to the Governor will prevent state and local government as well as private employers from using the national online data base known as E Verify which gives the immigration status of persons. All cities in the state already using it will have to stop using it with immediate effect.

This move has come as a surprise at time when other states are making the use of E verify screening mandatory and especially in a state like California which has a very high unemployment rate. It also has the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the country as well as going through a severe financial crisis. Despite these factors Governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign the law which is known as the Employment Acceleration Act.

The new law will conflict with a bill known as the Legal Workforce Act which is pending in the US house which requires all employers to use E Verify to screen their employees, which will provide more employment opportunities to Americans and legal immigrants.

June 9 2011 Alaska Governor Robert Bentley signed a tough immigration enforcement law. This law is seen as one of the toughest immigration laws in the country outdoing even the controversial Arizona law.

It is expected that there will be many legal challenges filed in court against this law. The Southern Poverty Law Center and The Civil Liberties Union have already stated their intention to file lawsuits.

This law requires public schools to determine citizenship or immigration status of children when enrolling them to school. This will be done by checking the birth certificate or by a sworn affidavit.

It gives the police the power to demand documentation from a suspect illegal immigrant and detain a person if they can’t provide any such documentation. Employees are required to check the immigration status of new employees by using the E-Verify database which was endorsed by the Supreme Court in a case relating to the immigration law in Arizona.

The law makes it illegal for a landlord to knowingly rent a property to an illegal immigrant and for a person to provide transportation knowingly to an illegal immigrant.

Many are calling this law racist and unconstitutional.

Thousands of immigrants took to the streets of Los Angeles on May 1st to protest against President Obama’s failure to fulfill his election promise to legalize over 10 million illegal immigrants in the country. Despite this promise there had been a record number of over 400,000 deportations since President Obama took office.

Prior to this protest, Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez organized a campaign throughout 20 cities to uplift the knowledge on the rights of immigrants. The immigrant communities are using their voting power to lobby president Obama to use his executive powers to bring in immigration reforms and to stop the deportations after congress has failed to make any progress on immigration legislation.

Before the May 1st rally, President Obama stated in New York, that revamping the Immigration system is one of the top priorities in his agenda. He followed this up by meeting influential Hispanics such as Eva Longoria to discuss issues of the Hispanic community and discussed the reintroduction of the Dream Act.

The 2012 election campaign will see the immigration issue being discussed at length since one cannot ignore the fact that the Hispanics represent over 15% of the American population.

With the narrow defeat of the Dream Act which was proposed by Democrat-controlled Senate in December last year, the story this year is that Republicans are now moving away from Obama’s two-pronged approach to reforms and improved border security towards the strict enforcement of immigration laws since they feel that they are in agreement with what voters want while sporting with the danger of alienating the large Latino population in the United States.

And for this, Republican Congressmen are drafting legislation that requires the federal government to take additional action such as adding more fencing, sensors, agents, and drones in order to discourage and stop every illegal immigrant from entering the United States.
According to experts, it is highly unlikely that this resolution will pass since Democrats continue to control the Senate in numbers. What this will do, however, is to apply pressure on them to take a stand on immigration issues in lieu of the 2012 Presidential elections.
And even though most of the voters and the Republican Party members agree with the measures, most critics say that trying to stop every illegal immigrant from entering the United States is an unrealistic expectation despite the fact that the federal government has spent almost $ 4.5 billion to improve border security over the last nine years.
The truth is that if these strict immigration laws are enforced to its full extent, an estimated $ 206 billion will have to be spent to deport the 11 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States along with the ballooning costs of securing the 2000-mile border.