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A German manager with Mercedes-Benz is free after being arrested for not having a driver's license with him under Alabama's new law targeting illegal immigrants, authorities said Friday, in an otherwise routine case that drew the attention of Gov. Robert Bentley.

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.

The length of his detainment and the status of his court case weren't immediately known.

Mercedes-Benz, which is a division of Daimler AG, builds sport-utility vehicles at a large plant in Vance, about 20 miles east of Tuscaloosa. The automaker's decision to open a factory in Alabama in 1993 was considered a major coup for the state's economic development efforts and launched a trend of other foreign automakers and suppliers who opened major factories in the state, including Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.

Alabama's governor said on Friday he would work to revise the state's tough new immigration law following embarrassing incidents where foreign workers were detained because they were not carrying sufficient identification.

"We recognize that changes are needed to ensure that Alabama has not only the nation's most effective law, but one that is fair and just, promotes economic growth, preserves jobs for those in Alabama legally, and can be enforced effectively and without prejudice," Bentley said in the statement.

Bentley's move came after two foreign employees in Alabama's important auto industry were detained by police in recent weeks for failing to produce proof of legal residency, generating negative publicity for the state and prompting calls for a re-examination of the law.

The workers - a German Mercedes-Benz executive and a Japanese employee at Honda -- were released without charges after the governor's office intervened on their behalf.

"This has everything to do with those auto workers," said Tommy Eden, an immigration lawyer in Auburn, Alabama.
"A lot of political contributors to the GOP want this straightened out so it won't scare business away."
The Alabama law, which passed by large margins in both chambers of the Republican-led Legislature earlier this year, requires police to detain people they suspect of being in the United States illegally if they cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason.

Alabama's crackdown on illegal immigrants, widely seen as the toughest in the United States, has cost the state's economy up to $10.8 billion, according to a new study.

The Alabama law, passed in June, requires police to detain people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally if they cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason, among other measures.

The cost-benefit analysis by University of Alabama economist Samuel Addy estimated up to 80,000 jobs were vacated by illegal immigrants fleeing the crackdown, costing Alabama's economy up to $10.8 billion.

The lost jobs also cost Alabama up to $264.5 million in lost state sales and income taxes, and as much as $93.1 million in lost city and county sales taxes, it found.

Skjellyfetti wrote:The cost-benefit analysis by University of Alabama economist Samuel Addy estimated up to 80,000 jobs were vacated by illegal immigrants fleeing the crackdown

Skjellyfetti wrote:

Alabama's crackdown on illegal immigrants, widely seen as the toughest in the United States, has cost the state's economy up to $10.8 billion, according to a new study.

The Alabama law, passed in June, requires police to detain people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally if they cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason, among other measures.

The cost-benefit analysis by University of Alabama economist Samuel Addy estimated up to 80,000 jobs were vacated by illegal immigrants fleeing the crackdown, costing Alabama's economy up to $10.8 billion.

The lost jobs also cost Alabama up to $264.5 million in lost state sales and income taxes, and as much as $93.1 million in lost city and county sales taxes, it found.

http://news.yahoo.com/alabama-immigrati ... 47677.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

AZGrizFan wrote:

Skjellyfetti wrote:
http://news.yahoo.com/alabama-immigrati ... 47677.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good. 80,000 open jobs for hard working Alabamans to fill.

Skjellyfetti wrote:

Alabama's crackdown on illegal immigrants, widely seen as the toughest in the United States, has cost the state's economy up to $10.8 billion, according to a new study.

The Alabama law, passed in June, requires police to detain people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally if they cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason, among other measures.

The cost-benefit analysis by University of Alabama economist Samuel Addy estimated up to 80,000 jobs were vacated by illegal immigrants fleeing the crackdown, costing Alabama's economy up to $10.8 billion.

The lost jobs also cost Alabama up to $264.5 million in lost state sales and income taxes, and as much as $93.1 million in lost city and county sales taxes, it found.

http://news.yahoo.com/alabama-immigrati ... 47677.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BDKJMU wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
Good. 80,000 open jobs for hard working Alabamans to fill.

Yep. The notion that this has cost Alabama anything is BS. As of Dec 11' there was 174,000+ unemployed in Alabama, plenty to fill the 80,000 jobs vacated by the illegals. That will save a whole lot of $ in unemployment & welfare.
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/alabama/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SDHornet wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:
Yep. The notion that this has cost Alabama anything is BS. As of Dec 11' there was 174,000+ unemployed in Alabama, plenty to fill the 80,000 jobs vacated by the illegals. That will save a whole lot of $ in unemployment & welfare.
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/alabama/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'd like to see a breakdown of where these vacated jobs are. If they are agribusiness related, I guarandamntee you they sure won't be filled by unemployed Alabamans...or any other legal citizens for that matter.

AZGrizFan wrote:

SDHornet wrote: I'd like to see a breakdown of where these vacated jobs are. If they are agribusiness related, I guarandamntee you they sure won't be filled by unemployed Alabamans...or any other legal citizens for that matter.

They will. Eventually. IF we stop letting in illegals to do the work. Time to get back to basics, folks.

SDHornet wrote:If they are agribusiness related, I guarandamntee you they sure won't be filled by unemployed Alabamans...or any other legal citizens for that matter.

Brian Cash can put a figure to the cost of Alabama's new immigration law: at least $100,000. That's the value of the tomatoes he has personally ripening out in his fields and that are going unpicked because his Hispanic workforce vanished literally overnight.

For generations, Cash's family have farmed 125 acres atop the Chandler mountain, a plateau in the north of the state about nine miles long and two miles wide. It's perfect tomato-growing country – the soil is sandy and rich, and the elevation provides a breeze that keeps frost at bay and allows early planting.

oday there is no-one left. The fields around his colonial-style farmhouse on top of a mountain are empty of pickers and the tomato plants are withering on the vine as far as the eye can see. The sweet, slightly acrid smell of rotting tomato flesh hangs in the air.

On Friday, the 11th circuit appeals court in Atlanta blocked the first of those measures, but allowed the state to continue detaining suspected illegal migrants. So it is unlikely that Cash's workers will dare to reappear.

The blow to Cash can be measured in those $100,000 – money he says he had wanted to put aside as insurance against a poor crop in future years. But it can also be measured in other ways.

Cash says that losing his pickers is much more than a commercial disaster. "Many of these people are friends and like family to us. They have been working for my family for years."

The crew leader for Cash's fields has been working for his family for 17 years. "He's my age and we pretty much grew up together," he says.

Cash has sponsored him in his application for American naturalisation – a process that the immigration authorities have said will take up to nine years and cost up to $17,000.

The crew leader already has permanent residency status and his two children are US citizens, but because his wife is undocumented he was fearful of the new law and left abruptly along with the others the minute the provisions came in.

Cash gets angry when people tell him that his Hispanic workforce was taking jobs away from Americans. Since the new law began two weeks ago only two American citizens have come by his farm asking for work.

The couple had driven two hours from a city to offer their services, but they barely lasted that long in the fields. Cash discovered that they were trying to fiddle him by notching up two baskets of tomatoes for every one they picked – as they were paid by the basket that would have fraudulently doubled their earnings.

"That's just the kind of stuff you come across. Somebody who really wants a good job and is prepared to work hard and honest for it isn't going to come up here for four months in the year.

"But Hispanics will do that, and move on to Florida when the picking's finished."

In a couple of weeks Cash says he will kiss goodbye to all the tomatoes left in the fields. He has already begun to pull up the stakes and remove the plastic ground cover, and then he will take a tractor out and bury the plants under ground.

"It's going to be a little while, but eventually people will see what has been done here. The cost of food in the supermarkets is going to go up, and in the end we will all pay the price."

dbackjon wrote:80,000 people leaving the state, who were working, spending, etc does create a huge hole in the economy - we have seen that here first hand in AZ.

Skjellyfetti wrote:yup.

Brian Cash can put a figure to the cost of Alabama's new immigration law: at least $100,000. That's the value of the tomatoes he has personally ripening out in his fields and that are going unpicked because his Hispanic workforce vanished literally overnight.

For generations, Cash's family have farmed 125 acres atop the Chandler mountain, a plateau in the north of the state about nine miles long and two miles wide. It's perfect tomato-growing country – the soil is sandy and rich, and the elevation provides a breeze that keeps frost at bay and allows early planting.

Skjellyfetti wrote:
Cash has sponsored him in his application for American naturalisation – a process that the immigration authorities have said will take up to nine years and cost up to $17,000.

The crew leader already has permanent residency status and his two children are US citizens, but because his wife is undocumented he was fearful of the new law and left abruptly along with the others the minute the provisions came in.."

SDHornet wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:
Yep. The notion that this has cost Alabama anything is BS. As of Dec 11' there was 174,000+ unemployed in Alabama, plenty to fill the 80,000 jobs vacated by the illegals. That will save a whole lot of $ in unemployment & welfare.
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/alabama/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'd like to see a breakdown of where these vacated jobs are. If they are agribusiness related, I guarandamntee you they sure won't be filled by unemployed Alabamans...or any other legal citizens for that matter.

BDKJMU wrote:

SDHornet wrote: I'd like to see a breakdown of where these vacated jobs are. If they are agribusiness related, I guarandamntee you they sure won't be filled by unemployed Alabamans...or any other legal citizens for that matter.

They would if you quit extending unemployment bennies and welfare for the unemployed. If they had 2 choices:

If the choices are:
1. Work the jobs the illgals are working.
2. Stay on unemployement and/or welfare.
Of course they pick #2.

If the choices are:
1. Work the jobs the illegals were working.
2. Starve.
They'll pick #1

Cluck U wrote: Somehow, skelly supports this Mill Road CEO’s business model while railing against Wall Street CEOs.

BDKJMU wrote:

SDHornet wrote: I'd like to see a breakdown of where these vacated jobs are. If they are agribusiness related, I guarandamntee you they sure won't be filled by unemployed Alabamans...or any other legal citizens for that matter.

They would if you quit extending unemployment bennies and welfare for the unemployed. If they had 2 choices:

If the choices are:
1. Work the jobs the illgals are working.
2. Stay on unemployement and/or welfare.
Of course they pick #2.

If the choices are:
1. Work the jobs the illegals were working.
2. Starve.
They'll pick #1