3 ms·

What happened in Alabama since? Would love to read a followup.

• logfromblammo 10y ago
  Most of HB56 was eventually struck down in court or settled out of existence, and cops stopped trying to enforce whatever is left of it. It was a huge embarrassment for the entire state, and likely contracted the state economy by as much as 6% the year after it passed, most severely in agriculture, construction, and hospitality. In subsequent years, investment stayed away, because few outside the state wanted the blatantly racist and xenophobic policy to rub off on their PR. But Alabama politics did not learn from the experience; people in the state still overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in the 2016 elections. Supporters of the measure still believe it would have worked if it was just allowed to operate as intended, rather than being blocked by the courts at every turn. To be fair, it did cause many of the prohibited aliens to leave the state, but it also caused their permitted and naturalized friends and family to leave with them, and it turns out all those people are actually a significant net benefit to the economy. Fewer crops have rotted, because farmers don't plant what they can't harvest. In short, the state is still ruled by bad hombres and nasty women that shamelessly pander to an ill-informed populace. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/what-alabamas-failed-anti-immigration-law-can-teach-us-about-donald-trump https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/what-alabamas-failed-anti...