Repeal Alabama's HB56

Take Action: Add Your Name to the Effort to Repeal HB 56!

H.B. 56, Alabama’s draconian anti-immigration law, has been an unmitigated disaster. The law has legitimized racial profiling, terrorized persons of color regardless of their legal status, frightened children, entrapped foreigners – including business executives – and damaged Alabama’s state economy. According to a new analysis by Sam Addy, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama, HB 56 could cost the state as much as $10.8 billion in economic output and up to $357 million in state and local tax revenue.

The impact of the law has been so harsh and so counterproductive that even proponents of H.B. 56 have concluded that the law must be fixed. But H.B. 56 is beyond repair – it must be repealed for the good of Alabama and its residents.

A coalition of national civil and human rights and worker rights organizations is calling on the Alabama State Legislature to take immediate action to repeal H.B. 56. The coalition is also calling on Alabama businesses – particularly foreign investors – to join in pushing for the repeal of H.B. 56.

The coalition has contacted the state’s major automobile manufacturers – Daimler AG, Honda and Hyundai Motor Company – and is in the process of reaching out to other top foreign investors.

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An Open Letter to Alabama Legislators

As you embark on this last day of the legislative session, please remember these reflections about last year’s legislative process—a process that rushed through the disastrous law that is HB56. Remember too, the devastating impact it has had on the state of Alabama...

Read the full letter that was placed in the Montgomery Advertiser on May 16, 2012.

Civil Rights, Human Rights, and Labor Groups Call for Alabama Legislature to Abandon So-Called “Tweak” Bill and Repeal HB 56

“You can’t fix a discriminatory law.”

Civil, human and labor rights groups are calling on the Alabama state legislature to fully examine the failings of its racial profiling law, HB 56, and repeal it instead of falling into a deeper hole with proposed changes that worsen the damage to its residents and economy.

The letter to Alabama Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh and House Speaker Mike Hubbard notes that the state has never conducted a full set of hearings to examine the consequences of HB 56, including but not limited to the impact on small businesses, agribusiness, law enforcement and school children, teachers and administrators.
 
“The practical and moral reasons for HB 56’s repeal cannot be ignored any longer. You can’t fix a discriminatory law. Therefore, we stand together and ask you to repeal HB 56 and abandon the equally damaged and damaging HB 658,” stated the letter, signed by leaders of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, NAACP Alabama State Conference, National Council of La Raza, Service Employees International Union, Southern Poverty Law Center and International Union, UAW.

Daimler and Its Shareholders Urged to Seek Repeal of Alabama's Racial Profiling Law

U.S. labor files complaint with United Nations' ILO

A delegation representing civil rights and labor leaders will be in Berlin, Germany, on Wednesday 4th April, to urge Daimler AG and its shareholders to seek repeal of Alabama's racial profiling law, H.B. 56. The law denies fundamental civil rights to immigrants and minorities and impacts trade union activities between and among union members, inhibiting freedom of association, according to a complaint being filed today with the International Labor Organization (ILO) of the United Nations by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and its affiliate, the Southern Regional Joint Board of Workers United.

View Press Statement: English | German

View ILO Complaint Cover Letter: English | German

View ILO Complaint

Poster: Daimler: Put the Brakes on Hate

Civil Rights and Labor Leaders Take H.B. 56 Campaign to Hyundai Shareholder Meeting in South Korea

At Hyundai's shareholder meeting today in Seoul, South Korea, American civil rights and labor leaders -- Wade Henderson, president and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Eliseo Medina, international secretary-treasurer, Service Employees International Union (SEIU); and Dae Joong Yoon, board member, National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC) -- are announcing a campaign of progressive engagement of the company's investors and executives to join them in calling for an end to the human rights disaster caused by Alabama's anti-immigrant law, H.B. 56. This trip is the first of a series of shareholder meetings that will be joined by the advocates (Daimler AG and Honda are holding theirs in April and June).

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