Alabama immigration law shakes up mobile home parks

Birmingham, Al.
Because of Alabama's new immigration law, owners of mobile homes who aren't legal residents of the United States won't be able to renew their registrations, meaning they'll have to haul their homes out of state, sell them or risk getting caught without the required decals.

In Jefferson County, the required tags come in two different forms -- as property tax decals for those who own both the home and the land where it sits, and land or registration decals for those who own the home but rent a lot in a mobile home park. In both instances, proof of citizenship or legal presence will be required. Registrations are due for renewal by Nov. 30 and property tax decals by the end of the year.

Under Section 30 of the law, neither the state nor any of its "political subdivisions" can engage in a business transaction with anyone unless their legal presence is verified. Federal courts have blocked the implementation of some portions of the law, but Section 30 is in effect.

James Pilgrim owns a mobile home park in Five Points West. He owns and rents out about half the trailers, while the other half of his residents own the trailers and rent a lot from him. Some of the residents are probably here illegally, Pilgrim acknowledged, but the U.S. government has not effectively policed the borders and has tacitly allowed the immigrants to live and work here for decades. It isn't right to strip them of what they've worked for and run them out of the country now, he said.

"They've let them people establish lives and jobs. They've raised families and children, children who know nothing about Mexico," he said. "I stood there and watched the people packing up everything they got.

"I stood there and liked to cry. Some of them have become just like my own family. It is really going to hurt."

However, the Alabama Manufactured and Modular Housing Association is not protesting. Sherry Norris, the executive director, said the association has been keeping its members informed about the coming requirements and most had, on their own, adopted standards requiring a potential tenant to present two forms of identification and have a credit check run.

Older mobile home parks that aren't members of the association may be facing problems, but members are not, Norris said.

"The new immigration law is not causing a hardship," she said. "They are pretty strict on who comes into their communities."

Greg Tucker, Limestone County's license commissioner and president of the state's association of licensing officials, said the immigration law doesn't leave any wiggle room.

"A transaction is a transaction," he said. "That is the way they wrote it." And it creates a Class C felony for failing to carry out the law.