HB56: Helping to Move Alabama’s Economy Forward (2012)
April 2012 | View the Full Report (PDF)
HB56 was enacted to reduce the state’s attractiveness as a destination for illegal aliens and to ensure that all of the state’s residents respect U.S. immigration law. HB56 protects Alabama’s most vulnerable residents who are often discriminated against in hiring because illegal aliens are willing to work off the books for wages that undercut American workers. HB 56 was also adopted in order to strengthen Alabama’s economy and it includes a number of aspects that offer significant future economic benefit to the state.
Economic Benefits
- Increased opportunity for currently unemployed and underemployed Alabamians;
- Increased wages for legal workers which means less dependence on social assistance and greater tax revenue for state and local governments;
- More money spent locally rather than sent out of the country as remittances, which means greater spending, production, and job growth as well as tax collection;
- A more stable workforce and a level-playing field for all employers;
- Reduced expenditures on educating the children of illegal aliens, especially with respect to cost of special English instruction;
- Reduced emergency medical expenditures as well as reduced competition for the limited resources of emergency treatment centers;
- Increased incentives to modernize and mechanize production that has depended on exploiting low-wage workers.
Click here to read FAIR’s new Q&A about this enforcement law.