The 1 millionth Hyundai Sonata rolls off the assembly line at the maker's Alabama assembly pl.ant.
With two automakers – among the state’s largest employers — adding their weight to rising pressure on Alabama lawmakers, the state is ready to revise a controversial crackdown on illegal immigrants.
The law, which has inadvertently nabbed several foreign executives assigned to plants operated by Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai, has been the target of protest by a coalition of unions and civil rights groups.
The Business Council of Alabama said it was pleased the state legislature has decided to make changes to a law that crackdown on illegal immigrants. The law requires foreigners to have identification papers with them or face immediate arrest.
“The intent of the immigration law was never to make it difficult for businesses to comply and burden businesses with unnecessary red tape,” the Council said in a statement.”
The proposed changes, it added, “while not perfect, are a much-needed step in the right direction and will allow businesses to clearly comply with both federal and state immigration law. We will work actively for the passage of HB
658, urging our member companies to voice support for these necessary changes in the law.”
The Council’s statement comes after a coalition of unions and civil rights groups critical of the Alabama law had traveled to Berlin to raise their concerns during Daimler AG’s annual shareholders meeting in the German capitol.
The coalition had, meanwhile, threatened to launch a consumer boycott of Hyundai products in Hispanic communities across the U.S.
The coalition’s delegation to Berlin included Fred Redmond, International Vice President for the United Steelworkers and a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council; Patricia Kupfer, Managing Director of America’s Voice Education Fund and Renata Soto, National Council of La Raza board member and Executive Director of ConexionAmericas.
Soto urged Daimler executives to live up to corporate ethics and denounce what it called a “racist law” in a state where Daimler produces its cars.
“Daimler has remained silent, even while one of its own Mercedes-Benz executives was arrested and jailed for carrying only his German identification card. The law must be repealed and Daimler is one of the
few actors in the state with the power to make the state Legislature listen,” Soto said.
Daimler executives declined to publicly denounce the controversial Alabama law but Bodo Uebber, a member of the maker’s Supervisory Board, did indicate the company had discussed the law through its membership on the Business Council.
In addition, Daimler’s lobbyists had discussed the immigration issue with the state of Alabama’s representatives in Washington D.C., a spokesman noted.
The union and civil rights groups also have been urging international companies such as Honda and Toyota not to make and new or additional investments in Alabama, which has used tax incentives, and promises of a business-friendly and anti-union environment to attract international manufacturers from Europe and Asia.
None of the companies have said they would cancel existing investment but the coalition has clearly succeeded in raising the stakes for Alabama by putting pressure on the automakers to hold back on fuure investments.
“With this return to the racial profiling law, HB 56, the Alabama Legislature is acknowledging that it made a big mistake passing the law in the first place. They say now they are ‘tweaking’ the law. But, I have news for them,” said Gebe Martinez, a spokesman for Service Employees International Union, which has been active in the campaign against the Alabama law, “You can’t tweak hate. You can’t tweak discrimination. You have to pull it out by the roots and kill this ugly law that takes Alabama to its dark racist past.”