Alabama House Speaker : Immigration law will not be repealed

MOBILE, Al.

House Speaker Mike Hubbard

The Alabama Legislature will not repeal the state’s controversial immigration law, and will consider only minor changes when lawmakers convene in February, House Speaker Mike Hubbard said Tuesday.
"Are we open to pulling the bill back and repealing it? Absolutely not," Hubbard said during a luncheon speech in Mobile. "We’re not going to back up on it."
Hubbard, a Republican from Auburn, said he was open to "tweaks" to a law that has become a lightning rod in the debate over U.S. immigration policy. House Bill 56, described by its backers as the nation’s toughest immigration law, was approved by the Legislature in June and took effect in September.
"We tweak bills all the time. We do it every year," Hubbard told an audience of about 200 local business and political leaders. "We’re always coming back and improving legislation, and we will do that with the immigration bill."
Hubbard said those changes could include "anything we find that is onerous to business, that takes time and money, that doesn’t serve a purpose."
He said lawmakers have met with business groups and law enforcement officials including Attorney General Luther Strange to gather input on how to strengthen the bill "to make it more defensible, to make it more enforceable."
Hubbard was adamant that the law should stand.
"In this country, we are a country of laws," he said. "It’s very simple. The federal government is doing a horrible job at policing (illegal immigration), and it does cause problems. It’s a national security issue and it’s also a jobs issue. We, in Alabama, among other states, are simply doing what we can do to enforce the law in our state."
Hubbard said it was "absolutely not right ... to select which laws you enforce and which ones you don’t."
"If we’re going to pick which laws not to enforce, then I might suggest the federal income tax. You can’t do it," he said. "We intend to make sure that the people who are living in Alabama are here legally. And I believe the vast majority of Alabamians agree with that."
Hubbard said he would support a national guest worker program "where we know who they are, where they are, how many are here, that they’re working and paying into the system."
He said it was wrong to ask taxpayers to subsidize people who are in Alabama in violation of the law.
"We are not going to back up from that. And I will make no apologies for that," he said. "Simply ignoring the law and turning your head is wrong. It might be politically expedient, but it’s not the right thing to do."
Hubbard was the featured speaker at a legislative luncheon hosted by the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce at the downtown Riverview Hotel.
Win Hallett, the chamber’s president and chief executive officer, said the controversy surrounding the law has become an impediment to local job recruiting efforts.
"I can tell you that in economic development, it is a very rough-and-tumble game. And to think that our competitors are not beating us over the head with this would just be folly," Hallett said in his closing remarks to the audience. "They are, and it’s hurting us."
Directing his comments to Hubbard, Hallett offered the chamber’s support in making changes to the law.
"We pledge to work with you to try to clean that thing up so we can put this bad publicity behind us," Hallett said.