Speaking Wednesday, Arizona Republican governor Jan Brewer urged Alabama governor Robert Bentley to continue forward with plans to implement the state’s controversial immigration reform law.
Speaking after the Las Vegas Republican presidential debate, Ms. Brewer said the law will result in driving undocumented immigrants out of Alabama, freeing up jobs for American workers.
“We never like to see families breaking up, but the bottom line is, probably those leaving Alabama are probably going back to Mexico,” Ms Brewer said in an interview with the Huffington Post. “But we are a nation of laws and American citizens, tax-paying people, the members of our country ought not to have to take care of illegal immigration and all the issues that go with it — education, health care, incarceration.”
“Alabama will survive,” she added.
The law, which has gained national attention, is widely seen as one the harshest in the nation. The measure mandates, among other things, that school officials inquire as to students’ immigration status and allows authorities to charge with a misdemeanor immigrants caught without documents that prove they’re in the country legally. It also requires local and state police to check people’s immigration status during traffic stops and makes it a felony for illegal immigrants to apply for a driver’s license or business license.
The Alabama law is based on Arizona law S.B. 1070, which Ms. Brewer signed last year. The Department of Justice announced it would seek to challenge both the Arizona and the Alabama law in court, prompting a major debate over the role of state rights.
Asked Wednesday whether Americans will replace the migrant workforce, Ms. Brewer said she expects farmers to find alternative sources.
“I think that it will settle down. I think they will probably find workers,” she said. “There are a lot of people unemployed there. They just need to get it organized and get it moving forward so those jobs are filled.”
