>Even while the Georgia Immigration bill is waiting for the Governor’s signature, Alabama is well on its way to enacting similar legislation according to an AP article found on Fox News. Both the House and the Senate have had their own versions of immigration enforcement (can’t really call these reform) bills and have passed their initiating houses. The House bill passed several weeks ago and has made it through the Senate committee but has not been voted on by the full Senate. The Senate bill has passed the Senate and is sitting in committee in the House.

The bills have several things in common mostly dealing with enforcement. Both bills require law enforcement to check the nationality of each individual on every traffic stop if the officer has reasonable suspicion to think that the person is not in the country legally. Both bills make it illegal to knowingly house, provide transportation for or even rent to an illegal immigrant. Both bills also make it illegal to knowingly employ illegal immigrants.

One way that the bills differ is that one of the bills requires E-Verify for all new hires and the other only requires it when working with the state. The second leaves it up to employers to prove the nationality of the individual they are hiring (understanding that hiring an illegal would then be illegal). They also differ in the varying punishments for each offense.

We will update as we get more information but follow the link above for the whole article.

DSF