The federal district court in Montgomery temporarily blocked a section of Alabama anti-immigrant law HB 56 that threatens to push families who cannot prove lawful status out of their homes. A civil rights coalition filed a lawsuit challenging this application of Section 30, which demands ‘papers’ for everyone applying for mobile home tags they need to remain in their homes.
SPLC legal director Mary Bauer testified before the Congressional Ad Hoc Hearing on HB56 in Birmingham today.
As part of a harsh anti-immigrant law, the Alabama Department of Revenue required people who owned or maintained mobile homes in the state to prove their lawful immigration status before they could pay annual fees for an identification decal required for all mobile homes. The Southern Poverty Law Center and its allies filed a federal class-action lawsuit challenging the immigration check as a violation of the Fair Housing Act that threatened to leave families across the state homeless.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and a coalition of civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit to challenge a provision of Alabama’s harsh anti-immigrant law that threatens to push people out of their mobile homes.
Charelle Loder, a U.S. citizen, and “Jack Doe,” an undocumented immigrant from Haiti, had been a couple for five years. When they decided to marry, they could not obtain a marriage license from the Montgomery County Probate Office in Alabama because the office denied licenses to couples unable to prove both partners have legal immigration status. The policy was not required by any federal or state law. The SPLC filed a federal lawsuit challenging the policy.
The SPLC filed a second lawsuit today challenging a practice in many Alabama counties that denies undocumented individuals and U.S. citizens whose intended spouses are undocumented their constitutional right to marry. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of two couples, including Charelle Loder, a U.S. citizen, and “Jack Doe,” an undocumented immigrant from Haiti.
When George Wallace stood in the "schoolhouse door” to stop African-American students from enrolling in the University of Alabama, it was all for show. With Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, we can only hope that his position is similar political posturing.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has won some encouraging victories in the months since we launched our effort to defeat Alabama’s harsh anti-immigrant law. We’ve also had some disappointments. But this legal battle is far from over. In fact, it’s just getting started.
Linda Smith, a U.S. citizen, and “John Doe,” an undocumented immigrant, had been a couple for more than nine years. When they decided to marry, they could not obtain a marriage license from the Montgomery County Probate Office in Alabama because the office denied licenses to couples unable to prove both partners have legal immigration status. The policy was not required by any federal or state law. The SPLC filed a lawsuit challenging the policy.
In a class action lawsuit filed today, the Southern Poverty Law Center challenged a policy of the Montgomery County Probate Office in Alabama and probate offices across the state that denies undocumented individuals and U.S. citizens whose intended spouses are undocumented their constitutional right to marry.
