Diane Martell, 17, right, leans on her parents Maurcio and Guadalupe on the porch of their home in Bessemer, Ala. The Martells are illegal immigrants, as are most of the residents of this trailer park, and they live in fear of Alabama's harsh immigration laws. "We are human beings," Martell says. "We are not criminals, and we are not aliens and we cannot just stay silent." (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
When it was enacted, the Alabama law was supposed to be a model for what advocates of “enforcement-only” immigration policies call “self-deportation.” The idea is to make everyday life so difficult for the undocumented that they choose to leave of their own accord.
What Sarlin found was a disaster – a policy whose unintended consequences were far-reaching and extremely costly to the native-born as well as the immigrant population.
Moar here.
