Alabama's Immigration Law Takes Effect and Unemployment Rates Tumble

Imagine that:

Unemployment rates have fallen in Alabama amid new legal pressure on companies to comply with a popular immigration reform law.

September was the first full month that the reform was in force, and the unemployment rate fell from 9.8 percent in September to 9.3 percent in October, according to a Nov. 18 report from the state government.

The rates fell from 9.9 percent to 9 percent in Etowah County, from 8.8 percent to 8.1 percent in Marshall county, and from 11.6 percent to 10.6 percent in DeKalb county.

“The latest fall in unemployment numbers is proof that American citizens will work, and continues to solidify [the evidence] that self-deportation [by illegal immigrants] due to the Alabama Taxpayer & Citizen’s Protection Act is occurring,” said Chuck Ellis, a city council member in Albertville — the main town in Marshall County, northern Alabama.

Since the law’s bipartisan approval in June, it has been furiously criticized by progressives, including leaders in ethnic interest groups, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez and other leading officials in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. These critics say the law’s implementation violates civil rights.

Hispanic lobbies are an important force in the Democratic Party, partly because they promise to rally a large slice of the nation’s varied Hispanic voters to back President Obama in 2012.

The federal government sued the state, but persuaded a judge only to partially delay implementation of the law. Supporters of the reform expect additional lawsuits from the federal government.

Of course, the federal government must try and stop this because we can't have anything that improves life for legal residents.