Illegal Workers in Alabama: The Exodus

Number of buildings in Tuscaloosa that require reconstruction: 5,362 Julie Dermansky/Redux

By Margaret Newkirk

When the city of Tuscaloosa, Ala., begins rebuilding more than 5,300 homes and businesses damaged or destroyed by an Apr. 27 tornado, it may find itself missing many of the people it needs to put the city together again. That’s what Ever Duarte, head of the city’s Hispanic soccer league, predicts after losing a third of his teams in a week. Tuscaloosa County’s 6,000-strong Hispanic population—including roofers, drywallers, framers, landscapers, and laborers—is disappearing in anticipation of a new law aimed at ridding the state of illegal immigrants, which takes effect in September. “They’re leaving now, right now,” says Duarte, 36, during a pause in a pickup soccer game. “I know people who are packing up tonight. They don’t want to wait to see what happens.” Two weeks ago, he says, his league had 12 teams. “Last week, it was eight.”

Governor Robert Bentley, a Republican, signed the 72-page measure on June 9, calling it “the strongest immigration bill in the country.” Alabama became the fifth state to enact new, stricter sanctions against undocumented workers, following Arizona, Utah, Indiana, and Georgia. Proposed laws failed this year in 22 states, including Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, and Louisiana.

Alabama goes further than most states in criminalizing assistance to illegal immigrants. Hiring, housing, and providing transportation to undocumented residents will be state crimes. Employers will be required to use the federal E-Verify system to confirm workers’ eligibility. The law also charges police and school officials with checking residency status.

About 55 miles southwest of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa is home to the University of Alabama and its storied Crimson Tide football team. The tornado roared through the city, killing 43 and leaving a path of rubble three-quarters of a mile wide and six miles long. The immigration law threatens to unleash its own havoc as the city tries to rebuild. “Hispanics, documented and undocumented, dominate anything to do with masonry, concrete, framing, roofing, and landscaping,” says Bob McNelly, a contractor with Nash-McCraw Properties. “There are very few subcontractors I work with that don’t have a Hispanic workforce.” Opponents of the new law say those who want to drive out illegal immigrants are willfully ignoring an undeniable truth: Like it or not, undocumented workers are essential to the economy, taking on hard, low-paying jobs Americans often won’t do, even in times of high unemployment. Rebuilding, McNelly says, will be slower and more expensive without them. “It’s not the pay rate. It’s the fact that they work harder than anyone. It’s the work ethic.”

The law’s backers say it is intended in part to create jobs for citizens of Alabama, where unemployment was 9.6 percent in May, a half-point higher than the national average. “This will put thousands of Alabamians back in the workforce,” state Senator Scott Beason, a Republican from Gardendale, said at the law’s signing on June 9.

So far, that hasn’t happened. Some contractors say that as immigrants move away, employers will have a hard time finding enough legal Alabama residents with the skills and desire to take their place. “There are plenty of people capable of working, if they’d just get off their butts and do it,” says Rich Cooper, a contractor with Bell Construction in Tuscaloosa.

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