Mexico, 15 other nations file briefs against Alabama immigration law

Mexico and 15 other nations filed briefs this afternoon against Alabama's strict new immigration law, saying it threatened the rights of their citizens and raised “substantial challenges” to the countries’ relationship with the United States.

"They want to make sure their citizens are treated correctly, and they have a sovereign interest in the way in which immigration law is carried out by the United States," said Edward Still, a Birmingham attorney who filed the briefs on behalf of the nations. "They want to have one immigration law and not 50."

In the brief filed in U.S. District Court in Huntsville, Mexico says it wants to ensure its citizens are treated fairly while in the United States.

"Mexico has an interest in protecting its citizens and ensuring that their ethnicity is not used as basis for state-sanctioned acts of bias and discrimination," the brief says.

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay joined in a single brief this afternoon.

Alabama’s immigration law, signed by Gov. Robert Bentley on June 9, makes it a state crime to be an undocumented alien in Alabama and allows law enforcement officers to detain those they have “reasonable suspicion” of being in the country illegally.

The law also requires school districts to compile information on undocumented students; makes it a crime to give a ride to a work place to an undocumented alien; allows the business licenses of those who knowingly employ undocumented aliens to be revoked; makes it illegal to rent property to undocumented aliens and requires all businesses in the state to enroll in E-Verify by April 1, 2012.

About two-thirds of Alabama's Hispanic community has Mexican roots.

Earlier in the day, Judge Sharon Blackburn consolidated lawsuits against the immigration law brought by the U.S. Justice Department, the Methodist, Episcopalian and Roman Catholic churches, and three dozen plaintiffs represented by the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center and National Immigration Law Center.