You vill give me your papers
by digby
Shades of Stasi:
To arrest one foreign car-making executive under Alabama's new tough immigration laws may be regarded as a misfortune; to arrest a second looks like carelessness.
A judge has acted to put a Japanese employee of Honda Motor Company out of his misery by dismissing immigration charges against him, three days after he was booked under Alabama's new immigration laws that have been billed as the most swingeing in America. Ichiro Yada is one of about 100 Japanese managers of the company on assignment in southern state.
He was caught in a "driver's license" checkpoint, which is new to me. Evidently, they are just stopping everybody and demanding their papers now.
The cops are actually just doing their job. The law doesn't say to just book people who look Mexican, although that was certainly the intent. These cops are just booking anyone who is "foreign" and isn't carrying the right paperwork. The fact that they happen to work for two of the biggest employers in the state is just an unfortunate wrinkle.
According to the article, Missouri is taking out ads inviting the car manufacturers to move there, which is pretty smart. And, in fact, they should move their plants. It's clear that Alabama is an unfriendly place for anyone who doesn't look like a Real American so they should take there money someplace where they're welcome.
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