Alabama Anti-Immigrant Law Snags Mercedes-Benz Executive

Sometimes karma can be a bitch. A case in point is the fall out from Alabama's horrific new anti-immigrant law that subjects individuals to arrest if they aren't carrying proper identification papers with them. The latest example of the unintended consequences of unvarnished bigotry is the arrest of a Mercedes-Benz executive who failed to have his passport on him when he was stopped for a minor traffic issue (involving his rental car). Having once lived in Alabama, i truly do not know what has happened to the state. From all I read, the state is far more bigoted and nasty than it was 30 years ago. I suspect employers are beginning to think twice about relocating plants and businesses to such a reactionary region. Will Virginia's "Taliban Bob" McDonnell and Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli learn a lesson from this? I doubt it. Here are highlights from Think Progress on this "oops" moment for the bigots in Montgomery:

Alabama’s economy is suffering because of HB 56, the state’s draconian immigration law, as workers flee out of fear. State Sen. Scott Beason (R), who sponsored the anti-immigrant bill in the Alabama legislature, once called it a “jobs bill,” but the state’s immigration law is leaving entire industries without enough workers instead.

And the extreme law, which legislators are now reconsidering, could seriously damage the state’s reputation as well after police arrested a German Mercedes-Benz executive last week under the immigration law. Mercedes opened its first American manufacturing plant in Vance, Alabama in 1993, spurring a trend of foreign car makers and suppliers opening factories in the state. They may be rethinking that decision, however, after one of their German executives was arrested for simply not having his passport with him:

Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson told The Associated Press an officer stopped a rental vehicle for not having a tag Wednesday night and asked the driver for his license. The man only had a German identification card, so he was arrested and taken to police headquarters, Anderson said.

The 46-year-old executive was charged with violating the immigration law for not having proper identification, but he was released after an associate retrieved his passport, visa and German driver’s license from the hotel where he was staying, Anderson said.

In October, the New York Times speculated in an editorial that despite best efforts to recruit foreign automakers to Alabama, the state was now “infamous as a regional capital of xenophobia.” And if the immigration law scared away a manufacturer like Mercedes, which employs about 2,800 Alabamians, or Hyundai, which announced an expansion at its Montgomery, Alabama plant in May, would only compound the state’s economic woes. The unfortunate arrest of a visiting Mercedes executive only underscores the damage Alabama’s harmful anti-immigrant law will continue to do to the state’s economy — and its reputation.