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Eleventh Circuit to Hear Alabama Immigration Law Appeal March 1

By Robyn Hagan Cain on February 28, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on the legality of HB 56, the Alabama immigration law, on Thursday, March 1, according to WBRC. (The Eleventh Circuit famously avoids publishing its calendar on its website, so we're forced to rely on third parties for these kinds of details.)

The law -- which mandates public school immigration status checks, criminalizes transporting undocumented immigrants, requires E-Verify checks of all potential employees' status, and instructs police to check the immigration status of stopped person suspected of being an undocumented immigrant -- has faced mounting obstacles between federal injunctions and public outcry.

In October, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals halted the public school residency checks and a provision that criminalized failure to carry an alien registration card, reports Reuters. Since then, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in U.S. v. Arizona, to address whether federal law precludes Arizona's immigration law; a Supreme Court regarding state-directed immigration policy would supersede Eleventh Circuit action on the H.B. 56.

The Alabama immigration law, which has been called the toughest state immigration policy in the country, is posed to fail in light of the previous injunction and state lawmakers' scramble to fix complicated provisions. If the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals considers the economic impact of the Alabama immigration law along with the constitutionality, the law's chances of survival are even slimmer. According to a recent Bloomberg report, HB 56 will shrink Alabama's economy by at least $2.3 billion annually and will cost the state at least 70,000 jobs.

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