To arrest one foreign car-making executive under Alabama’s new tough immigration laws may be regarded as a misfortune; to arrest a second looks like carelessness.
A judge has acted to put a Japanese employee of Honda Motor Company out of his misery by dismissing immigration charges against him, three days after he was booked under Alabama’s new immigration laws that have been billed as the most swingeing in America. Ichiro Yada is one of about 100 Japanese managers of the company on assignment in southern state.
Yada was stopped in Leeds, Alabama, at a checkpoint set up by police to catch unlicenced drivers. He was ticketed on the spot, despite the fact that he showed an international driver’s licence, a valid passport and a US work permit.
Key parts of the new immigration law, HB56, came into effect in late September, including the driving provisions. Under them, the police are required to check up on the immigration status of anyone they stop who they suspect of being in the country illegally…
Yada is the second foreign car executive to fall foul of the new law. Last month police officers arrested a German director of Mercedes-Benz for failing to carry a valid driver’s licence. The move exposed Alabama to widespread criticism and ridicule…
The St Louis-based Post-Dispatch newspaper revelled in Alabama’s embarrassment by publishing an open letter to foreign car companies encouraging them to pack their bags and move to the rival car-producing state of Missouri.
“We are the Show Me State, not the Show Me Your Papers State,” it wrote, telling auto bosses: “You’ve got two choices. Either ask your executives to carry their immigration papers at all times, or move to a state that understands gemüchlichkeit…”
Bamalama coppers probably think an international driver’s license is just for driving outside Dixie.
Maybe these companies will smarten up and move their operations out of our country.
If I was running a company. I think the US is the last place I would choose. It would sadden me because I could never think that way before. I was always brought up to the belief that American workers and the American way is the best way. Frankly I am not so sure anymore. We make some pretty bad decisions anymore in hast. Alabama is just another prime example of extremists in Government gone bad.
I say the cops did fine, keep up the good work gentleman. If only the Feds did as fine a job, we’d still all have jobs.
Your a idiot! Corporate CEO’s have shipped all the jobs out of this country to to take advantage of slave type wages and no regulation in the third world.That way they can claim bigger profits for the company and justify huge salaries and bonuses for them selves.Honda and Mercedes actually brought jobs to this country but these hicks want to run them out.
Your “your” is idiotically incorrect. It should be “You’re” for you + are. Also you didn’t put a space between the period after selves and before Honda nor did you put one between world and That.
As a valid critic, you suck. FYES&D. (Just added that to join the spirit of your initial rejoinder.)
Wow, you’re (as in you+are) a dick.
Didn’t know I was being graded on my grammar.What ever happen to? “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Not everything is suppose to become political.
So right, if Americans wanted to keep their jobs they should have bought American products. But instead they mostly chose inputs because they were cheaper.
Don’t be a fool and believe it was all about corporate greed. Many American companies simply closed up trying to keep that American dream alive. They lost.
Americans want high wages but want others to work for next to nothing so they can buy more stuff. Welcome to world competition ! Get over it!
Sorry I meant to say Imports! But you get my meaning.
So the working people of this country better get used to living in shacks with without plumbing or electricity and making a few dollars a day to compete with third world wages.Good point.
Don’t they mean a permit?
http://snopes.com/autos/law/idp.asp
Maybe that’s the term they use in the UK. You’re right. You can go to AAA and get an International Driver’s Permit.
I’ve used them a number of times traveling outside the US.
http://tinyurl.com/6qv6ar6
And you thought Arizona was bad about this stuff. HA!
However, this does have me curious just why we haven’t heard more about Alabama’s apparent recent aim at illegal aliens from the main stream press. So could it be that Alabama is traditionally a “blue state” whereas Arizona is “red”?
Could this be yet another example of how the main stream press really isn’t “un”biased? (And why we’re reading about it on a blog?!)
I’ve seen loads of news about Alabama’s law in “main stream press”. Including how farmers were having lots of trouble finding anyone to pick their crops. And how large numbers of Hispanic youth suddenly stopped showing up at school.
I wonder if the “bias” isn’t in your own eyes.
And where do you get the idea Alabama was somehow a blue state? It is considered a safe Republican state in 2012, it went to John McCain in 2008. As a matter of fact, the last time the state went blue was for Jimmy Carter in 1976. Before that, 1960.
check it out http://270towin.com/states/Alabama
Oh! That’s right. Alabama is nothing but a bunch of inbred backwards hicks. They’re either stringin up ex slaves while on a drunken binge or having homosexual intercourse while the others wrestle alligators and play banjos. But ask a a lib-tard brain-washed New York or California reporter what color Alabama is and they’ll likely telly you it’s BLACK! Then they might tell you it’s “blue” because of all the Hollywood stereotypes!!! In fact, I’d bet half can’t even point to Alabama on a unmarked map – they’re more likely to point at Louisiana!
Now, I don’t know what news you read/watch but the “main stream press” we get here in “the north” has still been very quiet about ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN ALABAMA! (Can you keep up with the topic here?) Certainly not like Arizona about 2 years ago. Therefore, my point was/is that the main stream press is (once again) proving their bias by not aggressively covering immigration crackdown stories in Alabama probably because Alabama has a “blue” stereotype. And it doesn’t matter what political color Alabama actually is either. Alabama could be 100-percent “red” but that doesn’t stop most morons who are not in the southern states to always think of Alabama as blue. And you can thank people like Jimmy Carter (who’s actually from Georgia) and Bill Clinton (who’s from Arkansas) for promoting this stereotype too.
Lastly, in case you missed it, Democrats are considered “blue” whereas Republicans are “red”. I don’t know why that is since those color associations probably should be reversed particularly since communist “reds” and Liberals have much more in common. But I didn’t make the rules either – the press did!
Gee, you get kind of defensive when you fuck up don’t you.
Are you an out of work American farmworker? LOL. Are you an out of work animal slaughterer? LOL. Yeah, all those immigrants taking away jobs most Americans won’t do anyways!
As for arresting managers of Honda Motors, which supplies thousands of jobs to Alabama…yeah, those ‘Bama cops are doing a great job. Hopefully, they’ll keep doing it until Honda pulls their factory (and all those jobs) out of Alabama altogether! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!
So the issue isn’t the Alabama law, but that they had a checkpoint to check all drivers. Don’t worry, like with Arizona, Obama is suing Alabama over its new immigration law. They don’t like the idea of enforcing immigration law.
“They don’t like the idea of enforcing immigration law.”
Yes, it’s more important to get those 20 million new Democrat voters on the rolls than trifling matters like enforcing the laws that are on already the books.
Now, now, you know politics doesn’t come into it.
snicker
Anonymous:
“So could it be that Alabama is traditionally a “blue state” …”
Not even close. Not even a little bit. Nope. No way José.
For me this is not a sign that there is a problem with AL law but with police education… As it happens I have been ticketed for “driving without license” within a months of arriving in the USA, despite proper and fully legal International Driving License/Permit. Police in that case same as in two mentioned above showed ignorance of the law they should have known. In my case no one arrested me but I needed to waste time at the Court just to have my case dismissed by the judge (with small benefit of hearing him excoriate the bewildered policeman for ignorance).
As for AL law, I visited over 50 countries in the World, E/W/N/S, rich and poor, free and totalitarian. In every single one I have been randomly stopped without any violation on the streets at least once by ordinary local police and asked for my travel documents. That is word-wide accepted norm. It should be accepted as such here too.
That’s what happens when you dress in a see-through Heidi costume and Viking helmet.
They probably thought that he was from Mexico.
“The move exposed Alabama to widespread criticism and ridicule…”
Alabama already has earned and receives 100% criticism and ridicule. This is a new version of the oxymoron, “military intelligence,” except that it takes more words to express the idea.
Then again, with moves like this, Alabama is now deserving more than 100% criticism and ridicule. And that’s a new cliche.
Remember that several of the September 11 hijackers had overstayed their visas. If they had run into this sort of roadblock, then at the very least they would have been detained and the feds would have gotten a notification.
Of course, we can’t detain the precious foreigner who doesn’t have proper identification. We might hurt their feelings.
they would have been detained and the feds would have gotten a notification
And it would have meant that the Al Queda timetable might fave been moved up a bit.
Sour grapes…
Brazenly copied from Wikipedia on Zacarias Moussaoui:
“On August 16, 2001, Moussaoui was arrested by Harry Samit of the FBI and INS agents in Minnesota and charged with an immigration violation. Materials itemized when he was arrested included a laptop computer, two knives, flight manuals pertaining to Boeing’s 747 aircraft, a flight simulator computer program, fighting gloves and shin guards, and a computer disk with information about crop dusting.”
And this did nothing to warn the right people.
Of course, I just read on Yahoo News that a pregnant Florida teenager was detained in Norfolk, VA airport because her PURSE had the design of a pistol on its exterior!
“..the TSA says the design could be considered a “replica weapon”..”
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/florida-teen-detained-tsa-design-her-purse-221835034.html
OH MY GAWD!
“TSA isn’t budging …..”
This says it all time and time again.
I can just see some concrete head bureaucrat standing there snapping gum. I guess a small rock in her hand would have been a replica catapult.
Thanks, Cap’n. I’d read the story earlier but it did not include a photo of the “weapon.” Just goes to show what happens when youplace national security in the hands of minimum wage high school grads. And another bad day for the TSA is the news they strip-searched an 84 year-old hunchbacked granny who didn’t want to use the scanners due to her pacemaker. http://nydn.us/sUUv9e (NB: The TSA denies they stripped her.)
It is good to see intelligent police do intelligent policing. The Japanese and German could be Al Qaeda or some other boogeyman. It is all for your safety, slaves!
Each time we enter our cars we should be forced to “badge in”, with biometric data, and provide a Blood Alcohol Level sample cross checked with a DNA profile match, and take a simulation test to evaluate our mental state and reflexes, and pay a $35 processing fee and $7 medical processing surcharge, and only then should we be allowed to start the car, in winter, with an interior temperature of 20 deg F.
The elites will receive an automatic pass to bypass these requirements.
The elites* don’t even do that.
They get into their cars, or planes, blind stinking drunk, maybe grope the staff a little, and say “Homes Jeeves“.
The 1%er millionaires would have to plan ahead.
We 99%er thousandaires will just have to have a designated drunk.
*) They are the 12,400 people who control at least a billion dollars.
You know, we’ve had trouble with the Jerrys and Nips before. Them ‘Bama boys have long memories…
dusanmal said: “…visited over 50 countries…In every single one I have been randomly stopped … on the streets … and asked for my travel documents. That is word-wide accepted norm.”
Well, I haven’t counted but I suspect I’ve lived or traveled in at least as many countries. I’ve been randomly stopped once, in Angola, and asked for my papers. I carry a laminated. reduced-size copy of my passport ID page. Other than that, I never carry my documents unless I’m traveling. An American passport is worth more money than your life in some of the countries I’ve been to.
I would argue your “accepted norm” is not the norm at all. Of course, it could be you just look like an undesirable or walk around with $50 bills hanging out of your pockets…
You’ve never been to France and had some officious official ask you “Vos papiers s’il vous plais…”
Then may I recommend a travel agent who can rent you a room in “le neuvième arrondissement” a “deux chevaux” and then you’re on your own…
Mont Parnasse has the most charming, respectful and insistent gendarmes you’ll never want to meet. 😉
poddy – I admit my three times in France have been limited to Paris but, once outside the airport (one of the world’s worst – DeGaulle), I have not been stopped and asked for my papers.
Maybe les gendarmerie just don’t like wheelchairs?
I for one am very happy with the new promulgated rules. There is a reason why these people are called “illegal” aliens. Our state has been constantly denied adequate enforcement and transit from the federal government, and do to this the residents have been forced to pay child care, social services, unemployment, and additional programs for a group of unauthorized citizens that don’t pay taxes themselves. This of course is happening to your tax dollars at the federal level as well.
What I find amusing is that Georgia and Mississippi have very similar polices that they have themselves enacted just recently. Alabama’s law was simply the more stringent of the three by requiring parents of public school students to prove citizenship ( this was to track the loss of tax dollars, not for enforcement ), and prevent the transportation of illegals even if the driver is a U.S. citizen. Prior to this law you could not check the status of passengers, nor could you hold an illegal for more then 24 hours. Immigration would simply ignore any alien reported that was not accused of a capital crime. So in effect you found police departments constantly ticketing, holding, then releasing aliens on a regular basis. On the other hand, it is a nice lucrative business for small municipalities. Illegal aliens don’t dispute violations, and pay in cash usually without appearing in court.
I’m so embarrassed by my state. People are so happy that farms are losing crops and kids have disappeared out of school because they feel they are morally right. Never mind all the money every city in Alabama is losing from sales taxes, all the money lost to local businesses, and the money lost to local schools.
So money trumps all huh?
If there were more robbers, people would have to buy more stuff to replace stolen items. Yay, let’s call for more robbers to stimulate the economy!
Yes money trumps all.
What are you some kind of commie?
This isn’t a democracy, its a kleptocracy and it requires a whole lot more Benjamins than anybody can carry.
Either you carry a platinum card or you’re suspect…
Ah yes, the slavery party’s real argument for illegal immigration: that it provides businesses a steady supply of disposable, easily-cowed, below minimum wage, tax-free labor forced to live in the shadows while doing the jobs that snooty liberals won’t do, in substandard working conditions, while undermining the American working class.
Yes, those poor businesses had their modern day slaves disappear. Too bad. They shouldn’t have employed them in the first place.
Perhaps the moral of the story is: Obey the laws or regret it. I see no reason for surprise.
I also have the privilege and wonderment of traveling the world wide. I have never been asked for papers. Not relevant, but I fondly recall the cops in Paris asking me who I was and telling me to move on. I think I was walking along the back wall of some important persons house. On the street and not suspicious acting, maybe I paused to take a photo?==I forget. But they saw my clothes, heard my not yet excellent French Accent, and it was high noon. Every little bit helps. Another time some cops picked me up and motioned for me into their little cop golf cart. They took me to a guard shack. The officer there told me in English that I was in a dangerous place and about to get held up. I did see some kids eyeballing me, I was at the botanical garden in Rio, but didn’t think much of it. Stupid me. Good Cops. No papers.
You know—other than my drivers license, I haven’t looked at my papers in years. Might be good to go find them. Get copies of what I can’t find. Moving every 5 years does take its toll.
Once you live in a jurisdiction for a certain amount of time an international driving permit can stop being legal and you must apply for a local driving license.
For example that is why the US ambassador to Canada will have an Ontario Drivers License. Do not so hastily assume these are redneck idiots (which they very well might be). They might understand that ‘long term residents’ are required to get a local drivers license after one month of residence. It is only because of these ‘show your paper’ check points that they are now running afoul of a law that until now was rarely an issue unless you were being issued a citation or in an accident.
The reason officers might know this law is because of crackdowns of out of state car registration to avoid high taxes or people going with an out of state license to avoid an in state suspension.
What’s this about being asked for ID papers in other countries?
I travel outside the US several months out of the year, mostly on business, and have done so for the past 20 years. I’ve been throughout the middle east, Europe, Asia, and South Africa. I’ve even been in Libya. I have never once been stopped by a policeman and asked for my papers. And my US driver’s license is perfectly acceptable when it comes to renting cars abroad.
I’m frankly puzzled by people here who claim they’re regularly stopped and asked for ID in countries outside the US. I always leave my passport in the hotel room safe. Having once been pickpocketed in Paris, where the thieves are real pros, I know what a hassle it is to deal with losing your ID, so I move about town with just my credit cards, hotel room key, and driver’s license.
And I’m also puzzled by the driver’s license stops in Alabama. Here in Maine, they never stop you just to check your license. Legally, there needs to be a primary reason before the police are allowed to stop you (e.g., traffic violation). Is Alabama that different from the rest of the US?
On second thought, is Alabama PART of the US?
My experience matches yours. I have travelled extensively, and lived internationally including in some bona fide police states.
I show ID when clearing customs, and in some more metropolitan countries when renting a room. But in general I am never asked for papers. In fact, in a number of countries I don’t even get ID checked when arriving at the airport.
The US has far more ID checks than almost any country in the world, and definitely more than any nation considered free. It is also the only place where you are routinely demanded to provide identification numbers for purposes that have nothing to do with filing taxes.
Read the article. He was asked for and produced all the required documentation, and yest was still charged.
“He was ticketed on the spot, despite the fact that he showed an international driver’s licence, a valid passport and a US work permit.”
In TN they don’t seem to stop you unless you’ve done something that gives them a reason. That is it’s been decade since I was stopped.
Back when I was much, much younger they used to do the occasional road block and ask to see your license. You held it up and if valid they waved you on.
In Texas they have cause and can pull you over if your license plate frame obstructs even the smallest amount of writing on the plate, e.g. the name of the state….
First link on Google
http://drizzten.com/blog/2007/02/license_plate_frames_banned_in.html
If you’re unlucky enough to get pulled over, and the police ask you to walk-and-turn, or do the one-leg test, it is your right to say no, because it’s completely voluntary. Don’t take the bait!