Crops rotting in fields, long lines at courthouses to renew car tags, massive amounts of paperwork for companies doing business with the government, and the shrinking of GDP between $2.3 billion USD and $10.8 billion USD (1% to 6% of GDP, respectively).

Alabama has a problem, and that problem is House Bill 56.

State legislature passed the bill last year. It is considered to be one of the toughest immigration laws in the nation, requiring, inter alia, schools to record the immigration status of all students and proof of citizenship to renew a driver’s license.

So, joining the ranks of those who oppose the law and would have it repealed or tweaked on humanitarian grounds are now those who feel its economic and bureaucratic pinch is too strong. NPR has even called it “the law of unintended consequences.”

A number of provisions have already been ruled unconstitutional, and several bills have been introduced to modify it. It remains to be seen what HB 56 develops into.

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(c) Picture: Alabama Department of Archives and History.