An odd turn of events yesterday over the citizenship of the 13 self-proclaimed undocumented immigrants arrested at a demonstration Tuesday has brought to the surface many questions about the rally that brought 200 people to the Capitol earlier this week in protest of HB 56, Alabama's strict immigration law.
Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange said that he received word from authorities that the people arrested at the event were actually U.S. citizens.
Montgomery Police Sgt. Donna Mackey, a department spokeswoman, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed it will not become involved in the case, meaning that the arrested parties claiming undocumented status will not risk deportation because of the offense.
Mike Winter, a Montgomery lawyer representing the 12 people, said the rumors are untrue and that they are all in the country illegally.
Eleven of the protesters were arrested by Montgomery police officers on South Union Street after blocking the road for two hours in protest of the legislation. They were taken into custody without incident and transported to city jail. One person, said to be a minor, was released the day of the protest to her parents. The remaining 10 were charged with disorderly conduct for blocking the road, a misdemeanor offense carrying a $500 bail
Another two protesters who sat back-to-back in the lobby of the State House for over two hours after delivering a letter to Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, and sponsor of the bill, were arrested by state troopers after the building closed at 5:30 p.m. The two, who claimed to be college students in the country illegally from Los Angeles and Philadelphia, were taken to the county jail on trespassing charges.
The 10 people taken to city jail will be released today at 3 p.m. after the group that organized the demonstration raised $5,600 to post bail. They will be tried in district court Feb. 27 at 2 p.m. The other two remain in the Montgomery County Detention Center.
Dream Activist spokesman Mohammad Abdollahi said that the group was forced to raise the money because the arrested parties were all undocumented immigrants, making it impossible for the group to go through a bail bondsman.
Abdollahi also said two people who were arrested in a similar demonstration in Mobile last Thursday were taken to a Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Louisiana after police confirmed that they were in the country illegally.
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