US Appeals Court refuses immigration appeal

US Appeals Court refuses immigration appealA federal appeals court has turned down a request from the state of Alabama to reconsider their latest ruling in which the court declared as invalid a number of provisions of the state’s immigration law.

The Montgomery Advertiser reported that on Wednesday the court rejected a request for the full court to review the decision made by a panel of three judges.  The court declined to give any reason for their decision to reject the appeal.

Two months ago back in August the court declared as invalid several parts of the immigration law of the state of Alabama.  These parts included sections that made contracts with immigrants unenforceable as well as a section that made it an offence to “harbor, conceal or shield” immigrants who do not have documents from law enforcement officials.  The 11th Circuit declared that the contracts provision was intended to ensure that the lives of undocumented immigrants were so hard that they would have no other choice but to leave the state entirely and declared them to be invalid.

The 11th Circuit called the provision “A calculated policy of expulsion, seeking to make the lives of undocumented aliens so difficult as to force them to retreat from the state.”  A ruling is still awaited on another appeal regarding other sections of the state’s immigration law that the court also declared invalid, one that forces schools to have to collect information on unlawfully present immigrants.