Judge halts state immigration law for one month

A federal judge has placed a hold on the tough state anti-immigration law in Florida’s neighboring state. The law was scheduled to take effect Thursday. The judge issued a short order Monday, consisting of only two pages, which placed a temporary halt to the immigration measure until September 29. The judge says there simply was not enough time before the law was to take effect to address all of the constitutional issues presented and ordered the act be “temporarily enjoined,” to provide more time to fully consider the issues.

The strict immigration law includes provisions involving employment-based immigration issues. The measure goes beyond similar measures in other states regarding businesses and farmers. The measure would penalize farmers and businesses who hire undocumented workers.

The law sets out punishments for businesses and farmers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. A first-time offense would include a business license suspension lasting 10 days, among other mandates. A second offense could result in a location based license revocation, and a third offense could result in a business license revocation for all business operations statewide. Farmers and the construction industry are also implicated in the tough immigration law.

In addition to the provisions related to employment-based immigration issues, the measure has provisions related to landlords, schools, the authority for law enforcement to ask about immigration status and a provision that makes it an offense to give an undocumented immigrant a ride.

Source: Fox News, “Alabama’s Immigration Law Is a Train Wreck,” Alex Nowrasteh, Sept. 2, 2011