Alabama immigration law protestors picket on Federal Courthouse steps in Tuscaloosa

Protestors from Tuscaloosa and as far as California gathered in front of the Federal Courthouse Building on University Boulevard to sound off over the Alabama anti-immigration law on Monday afternoon.

The demonstrators included several undocumented Hispanic immigrants, who said so via megaphone on the courthouse steps as they called the Alabama law an injustice to immigrants living in the state.

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals today ordered a lower court to block enforcement of a section of Alabama's immigration law that required schools to collect data about the immigration status of students. The court ruled that section violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Protestors from Phoenix, Ariz., brought a tour bus through Tuscaloosa as part of their "No Papers, No Fear" initiative, an effort to fight for immigrants' rights from state to state. The tour was in Memphis, Tenn., prior to today's event. They met with Somos Tuskaloosa, a local group also on hand to protest.

The courthouse protest started around 4 p.m., as the protestors moved toward the steps before Tuscaloosa Police officers arrived and ordered them to vacate since they did not have a permit to demonstrate in the area.

Angel Alvarez, from Phoenix, said he thinks progress has been made in that the group's message continues to spread and other undocumented immigrants are stepping forward to express they no longer fear what might happen.

"It's been a great experience sharing with other communities and learning about the states' laws," Alvarez said. "It's been great having that communication with them and having them stand up and fight against it."

Tuscaloosa resident Carl Clements stood in support of the immigrants, saying Alabama's law is based on a "crazy notion" that Hispanics are taking jobs from people or that they're disproportionately criminal, which he says they are not.

"I'm out here to support some of my friends who are undocumented immigrants who are being harassed and who are, to no fault of their own, being blamed for economic problems and loss of jobs," Clements said. "In my opinion, that's a bogus reason. They're not really having a negative impact on jobs as far as I'm concerned. This is a law based in part on a fear of people that we don't know, who speak a different language, and are somewhat a different color, and that's not what you base a law on."

The protest, comprised of at least 100 people, then moved down University Boulevard. Alvarez said he does not yet know where the tour will go next.

Photos and Video by Ben Flanagan

Link to original article from Blog AL.com