Yesterday, Judge Sharon Blackburn temporarily blocked some sections of the highly controversial Alabama Immigration Law, House Bill 56, and upheld other provisions of the bill. The ruling is a partial victory for both sides. The following sections were blocked:
- Section 8: prohibiting undocumented aliens from attending or enrolling in an Alabama public post-secondary educational institution.
- Section 11(a): prohibiting undocumented aliens for applying, soliciting or performing work as an employee or independent contractor.
- Section 11(f): Prohibiting drivers from blocking or impeding traffic while attempting to hire or hiring/picking up passengers for work at a different location.
- Section 11(g): prohibiting persons from entering a vehicle in order to be hired for work at a different location if the vehicle blocks or impedes traffic.
- Section 13: prohibiting concealing, harboring, transporting, etc. of undocumented aliens.
Blackburn was only considering whether to grant the federal government’s request to block the entire law until the court could decide whether the entire bill is legal.
Judge Blackburn supported other parts of the law, such as allowing local police to inquire about the immigration status of a person they have stopped and requiring public schools to verify their students’ immigration status.
