The point of the legislation was to criminalize the status of "being here illegally" and hiring, harboring, etc., "illegals" whether they came illegally, or overstayed their visa. It has NEVER been a CRIME to be here "illegally". EVER!
EVerify, and other provisions have already been in force in the Fed. law. AZ and AL sought to make it a CRIME to be here "illegally". To prove someone is here illegally, or to prove a crime of employing one, or harboring one, etc, etc, you have to have evidence. Guess who has any such documentation? That's right, the Feds. Guess who has plainly stated, they're not providing it to the states for such prosecutions?
Interesting... So, even though portions of the legislation echo federal immigration law, the Alabama law somehow
criminalizes illegal aliens, while the federal laws somehow do not. After reading it, I just don't see where an illegal alien would be charged with some sort of "illegal alien" crime. I do see reference to charges and penalties for dealing in false identification documents and vital records identity fraud, but I don't see any new
criminal status for illegal aliens. Care to provide a reference? BTW, if I'm reading the law correctly, the state just turns them over to the Feds unless they are being prosecuted for other crimes in the state of Alabama.
Bringing e-Verify down to the state level can't be a bad thing, especially since the federal government is providing access to it. And, since the federal government is providing access to e-Verify, I guess they are providing some evidence to verify a person's status to an extent.
So, why is this law
baaaaad again? Perhaps, there are a couple of glitches, I suppose.