Kilili joins 38 Congress members in opposing Alabama law

Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan (Ind-MP) has joined 38 other members of Congress in opposing an Alabama law that they consider “anti-immigrant.”

The controversial Alabama immigration law instructs employers to check a worker’s immigration status with the government’s E-Verify system.

Rep. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (IL-4), chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and 38 other House Democrats including Sablan, an independent who aligns himself with the Democratic Party, signed a brief of amicus curiae in support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Alabama’s HB 56.

The amicus brief, filed Monday, asserts that the Alabama law is unconstitutional because it is preempted by federal law. The amicus brief also highlights the harm that the Alabama statute will cause to all Alabamans, including citizens.

Sablan, in an interview yesterday, said federal immigration is a “federal jurisdiction.”

He said if the CNMI, for example, tries to preempt immigration law, “that’s wrong and we should protect the Constitution of the United States.”

Human rights advocate and former Rota teacher Wendy Doromal, in her blog Unheard No More, asked whether Sablan, by opposing the Alabama law, will now support rights for all of the legal aliens in his own district, the CNMI.

“Will he also openly oppose CNMI’s latest labor law that attempts to preempt federal law? Or does he just support justice and rights for all undocumented and documented aliens in the mainland?” Doromal asked.

Sablan’s pending HR 1466 seeks a grant of CNMI-only resident status for four groups of people in the CNMI, including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.

Doromal reiterated that Sablan’s bill excludes some 12,000 other legal foreign workers.

Sablan said there’s nothing in the U.S. immigration law that says these 12,000 workers are entitled to improved status.

“What I’m trying to do is help U.S. citizens who happened to have immediate relatives who are third country nationals. That’s what I’ve always said I would help,” he added.

In a statement by Rep. Luis Gutierrez, he said the “Constitution is quite clear about the federal government’s preeminent role in immigration matters and having 50 inconsistent state policies toward immigrants is a level of chaos the Founders sought to avoid.

“HB 56 adds layers of punitive measures targeting Alabama residents that are inconsistent with federal policy. Congress has the responsibility to balance many concerns in legislating federal immigration policy, such as law enforcement, the economy, family unity, education, civil rights, and so on. HB 56 has and will cause irreparable harm to communities and families throughout Alabama, but will also cause irreparable damage to constitutional principles if allowed to stand. We join the U.S. Department of Justice, civil rights organizations, immigrant advocates, educators, and people of faith in calling for HB 56 to be stripped from Alabama’s law books,” he said.