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Policy

Riding in Cars with Mexicans

Katherine Mangu-Ward | 5.10.2011 3:47 PM

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Alabama has decided to follow in Arizona's footsteps (or at least to follow in Oklahoma's footsteps, since they followed Arizona first). The state senate recently passed a bill banning, among other things, knowingly giving an undocumented immigrant a ride in your car.

The legislature is also taking action to keep the scourge of mariachi music (or whatever) out of Alabama's all-American proms, where real patriots prefer lip syncing to "Livin' on a Prayer" over and over.

SB 256, the "Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act," takes steps to block employers from hiring illegal immigrants, gives law enforcement more authority to check immigration status, requires voters to bring proof of citizenship with them to the polls—and prohibits "participation in any extracurricular activity outside of the basic course of study" for K-12 students who aren't legal residents. In other words, no chess club or drama society for the kids; football might be a religion in Alabama, but that's off-limits too.

By the way, there's an apparently unrelated yet highly relevant Facebook group. There's always a Facebook group.

Via The Agitator's guestblogger Dave Krueger, who is filling in while Radley Balko galavants around Croatia.

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NEXT: Obama Administration Lawyers Claim Individual Mandate to Purchase Health Insurance is "not asking people to buy something they otherwise might not buy."

Katherine Mangu-Ward is editor in chief of Reason.

PolicyCivil LibertiesWar on DrugsNanny StateImmigrationEducationCivil Asset Forfeiture
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