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Over the past 20 years, Alabama has welcomed the foreign automobile industry, but there is concern that enforcement of Alabama’s H.B. 56, the harshest immigration law in the country, may tarnish Alabama’s previously good reputation. Last week’s arrest of a Mercedes-Benz manager was a huge faux-pas and an embarrassment for business recruiters from the state.
The manager, who has since returned to Germany, was stopped by police because his rental car did not have a tag. He was charged with violating the immigration law for not having proper identification, which he had left at his hotel.
Great position for the competition, but not for Alabama:
Companies looking to invest in the U.S. are watching the controversy over the immigration law, and at the same time, Alabama’s competitors are reminding those companies of the issue.
Alabama’s message to Washington clearly is having undesired effects, not just for immigrants and small businesses, but also for foreign investment.
Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a Washington-based group that promotes “common sense” immigration reform, said he’s not surprised Alabama’s law has had so many unintended consequences.
The measure is so radical that it sends the message that foreigners of any kind are not welcome in Alabama.
“As far as I’m concerned, HB56 is a self-inflicted wound of massive proportions in a state that up until now had fought and clawed its way back to respectability,” he said. “I can’t believe the business community is not standing up to the punks that wrote this bill. They’re going to watch five decades of rehabilitation go down the tubes in a matter of weeks.”
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