October 5, 2011 | 10:58 AM | By

“After Ruling, Hispanics Flee an Alabama Town”

A tough new immigration law in Alabama recently went into effect, with provisions that include requiring schools to verify immigration status at registration. The New York Times‘ Campbell Robertson sends this report from one Alabama town affected by the law.


The vanishing began Wednesday night, the most frightened families packing up their cars as soon as they heard the news.
They left behind mobile homes, sold fully furnished for a thousand dollars or even less. Or they just closed up and, in a gesture of optimism, left the keys with a neighbor. Dogs were fed one last time; if no home could be found, they were simply unleashed.
Two, 5, 10 years of living here, and then gone in a matter of days, to Tennessee, Illinois, Oregon, Florida, Arkansas, Mexico — who knows? Anywhere but Alabama.
The exodus of Hispanic immigrants began just hours after a federal judge in Birmingham upheld most provisions of the state’s far-reaching immigration enforcement law.

— www.nytimes.com