Hey Pedro? Need a ride?

An Alabama legislative committee Tuesday (March 8, 2011) approved a bill (House Bill 56) under which an immigrant without valid federal immigration registration would be guilty of trespassing, a crime punishable by as much as a year in jail, simply for being in the state of Alabama. The bill, which is modeled after a law passed in Arizona last year, would let a police officer determine someone's immigration status after stopping or arresting the person in connection with another state or local law, if reasonable suspicion exists that person is an unauthorized alien. House Bill 56 also would make it a crime to knowingly transport an illegal immigrant, even if it is to take them to a doctor or grocery store. Finally, this bill would require that any illegal immigrant convicted of a violation of state or local law, upon release from jail or payment of a fine, be immediately transferred to the custody of federal immigration or border officials.

What do I say about this proposed legislation? I am thinking about getting into the fake “federal immigration registration” ID business, or at least opening a bargain-basement used car business!

Ok the following facts are from Wikipedia...so I take no responsibility for their validity!

1. Indigenous peoples of varying cultures lived in the area of Alabama for thousands of years before European colonization. Trade with the Northeast via the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period (1000 BC–AD 700) and continued until European contact. The agrarian Mississippian culture covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 AD, with one of its major centers being at the Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama.

2. According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, the racial composition of the state of Alabama was: 70.4% White (Non-Hispanic Whites: 68.7%), 26.2% Black or African American, 0.5% Native American, 1.0% Asian, less than 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific islander, 0.8% from some other race, and 1.2% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos (of any race) make up 2.7% of the total population.

3. The state had 108,000 foreign-born (2.4% of the state population), of which an estimated 22.2% were illegal immigrants (24,000).

So, if Wiki is right, the indigenous population of Alabama have gone form being a majority to being only 0.5% of the overall population? OUCH!! Looks to me like immigration in Alabama (legal or illegal) has been an issue for several hundreds of years. I don't know why the authorities are getting annoyed about people giving immigrants lifts...after all...if history teaches us anything...it teaches us that these immigrants will eventually become the majority group in years to come.

I wonder if there was a time when the natives used to incarcerate anyone who gave European settlers a lift in their canoes?

LOL....as always Space you bring an interesting perspective. Historical footnote: When the native americans were asked by European explorers and settlers to present a deed in proof on ownership of the lands they occupied they could not do so....and the rest is history; history of all lands everywhere....LOLOLOL

lol...true...I suspect they didn't have any deeds.

And...it's not like we...the British...are without sin when it comes to seizing other peoples' lands with bureaucratic sleight of hand!!