Crowds protest Ala. immigration law

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP)  Large crowds carrying candles and wearing white marched quietly Saturday in a demonstration organized by churches and other faith-based groups against Alabama's tough new law cracking down on illegal immigration.

The protest began with a mass prayer for kindness and mercy in a shady park, where people waited in line to sign a petition against the law.

The crowd was a mix mostly of whites and Hispanics. Organizers gave instructions in both English and Spanish.

"It's a terrible law and needs to be revoked," said Jo Anne Gaede, of Mountain Brook. "They are people just like me."

Lee Moradi, who is from Iran originally but is now a U.S. citizen, called the law "mean."

"I'm not for illegal immigration, but this law is ridiculous," Moradi said.

Organizers said the law is a mean-spirited attempt to run an entire group of people out of a state that is still trying to recover from the damage of decades of race-based segregation laws.

Prospective marchers signed up on a Facebook page set up for the demonstration, and the crowd appeared to range from the hundreds to low thousands.

Both supporters and opponents of the law describe it as the nation's toughest state crackdown on illegal immigration. Protest leaders — many of whom are from Christian churches — said the law violates biblical principles and could criminalize basic ministry activities such as providing food, transportation or housing assistance to the needy if the recipient is in the United States illegally.

"It is an imperative of my faith to welcome the stranger," said organizer Angie Wright, pastor of Beloved Community United Church of Christ.

The march — the first major demonstration planned since Gov. Robert Bentley signed the law earlier this month — was held not far from where black demonstrators marched through downtown Birmingham protesting legalized racial segregation in the 1960s.

The law takes effect Sept. 1 and makes it a crime to knowingly hire illegal immigrants, rent them places to live or give them rides. It requires schools to determine the immigration status of their students and report it to the state, although children in the country illegally would not be refused enrollment.

The governor's office had no immediate comment on the protest. Bentley, a Republican and Southern Baptist church deacon, defended the law when he signed it.

"We have a real problem with illegal immigration in this country," he said. "I campaigned for the toughest immigration laws, and I'm proud of the Legislature for working tirelessly to create the strongest immigration bill in the country."

Leaders of the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the Lutheran Church and the Roman Catholic Church all have criticized the law. The president of Alabama's largest denomination, the Alabama Southern Baptist Convention, said he believes all laws should be obeyed but worries about sections of the law that could make it illegal to help people.

While opponents of the law describe it as unconstitutional and plan to sue to block it, no suit has been filed. Opponents have organized a petition effort against the act, but it was unclear what impact the drive might have, if any.

The head of Greater Birmingham Ministries, an ecumenical group that provides assistance to the poor, said he feared the law will make it easier for some to take advantage of illegal immigrants because it states that any contract with an illegal immigrant is void.

"An employer can hire an undocumented worker for a week, and then refuse to pay him; the worker will have no recourse," the Rev. Scott Douglas, executive director of the ministry organization, said in a statement.

New figures from the Census showed Alabama's Hispanic population increased 145 percent in the last decade to about 185,600 total people. Hispanics now make up nearly 4 percent of the state's population.

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