Hispanics protest immigration law

Ezequiel Gutierrez didn’t put out pastries Wednesday in his Russellville shop, Mexico Cakes & Bakery.

Juan Martinez kept the front door locked at his grocery store, Tortilleria Daisy.

Jaime Valdez did not oversee his commercial and residential properties.

And at least half a dozen chicken plants across the state were forced to shut down or scale back operations. The parking lot was virtually empty at a Wayne Farms poultry plant in DeKalb County that employs about 850 people.

Gutierrez, Martinez and Valdez are all legal immigrants in Alabama, but they stood in solidarity with other Hispanics across the state in protesting the new immigration law by keeping their businesses closed and their children out of school.

The protests were at least partially prompted by social media outlets such as Facebook, as well as a Spanish-language radio station in Birmingham.

Valdez said he would make efforts to use very little utilities, showering Tuesday night instead of Wednesday, for example, to further the idea that he had, in essence, left the state for the day.

He said Hispanics also tried to refrain from making purchases Wednesday to show how the economy would be affected without their tax dollars.

Valdez became a U.S. citizen in 1988, but he crossed the border from Guatemala into California illegally in 1980.

“I don’t forget — I was an undocumented, too,” he said. “I crossed the border undocumented, and I don’t forget what that was like.”

Russellville Mayor Troy Oliver said Franklin County might see some economic impact as a result of the protest.

“The Hispanic community has a large impact on the economy here and also on the school system,” he said. Because businesses were closing for just one day, however, he said the impact would be minimal.

Oliver said while he appreciates Hispanic residents’ exercising the right to peacefully protest, he does not encourage keeping children out of school, adding that he’d spoken with one boy who cried because he hadn’t been taken to class Wednesday.

“The white kids, too, are really worried about what’s going to happen to these Hispanic kids that they’re friends with,” Oliver said. “They’re truly concerned. So why bring (the protest) into the school system when the children are doing so well? Why get them focused on something that they really can’t do anything about and really shouldn’t know anything about until all of this is sorted out?”

Valdez said this was one time he could not honor Oliver’s wishes.

“He told me I should send my kids to school, and I said, ‘No, I’m disappointed now. I have to support the people who need it,’ ” Valdez said.

School officials in Franklin County said children of immigrant families who didn’t report to school Wednesday ultimately punished themselves, adding that unexcused absences lead to truancy issues.

The Russellville school system, with about 800 Hispanic students, had 170 students out Wednesday.

“We must follow board policy on attendance, and our hope is that they’re back in school (today),” Ramona Robinson, the system’s federal programs coordinator, said Wednesday.

At Tharptown School in Franklin County, where there is a significant population of Hispanic students — about 32 percent of the student body — there also were unusually high numbers of absentees.

Tharptown is one of the smallest schools in the county. There were 34 Hispanic students absent at the high school Wednesday and 39 of the 100 Hispanic elementary-age children.

“This is of great concern for us as a school system, but also as a state,” Tharptown Elementary guidance counselor Brandi Gholston said. “We could get into the emotional aspects of this all day long, but looking just at numbers, we stand to lose a lot of revenue. It hurts us financially when our average daily attendance takes a dive like this, but several days like (Wednesday) would really be devastating. The really sad thing is that these aren’t children who normally miss school at all.”

In Florence, Hispanic student absenteeism wasn’t higher than usual Wednesday, Superintendent Janet Womack said.

“Communication with these families has been the key on our parts,” she said. “I wasn’t alerted Wednesday to any unusually high absenteeism.”

An estimated 185,000 Hispanics live in Alabama. According to the latest census reports, the largest number of Hispanics reside in Franklin County. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 70 percent of the state’s Hispanic residents are Mexican.

Republican supporters say Alabama’s strict new immigration law was intended to force illegal workers out of jobs and help legal residents find work in a state suffering from high unemployment.

The law allows police to detain people indefinitely if they are suspected of being in the country illegally and requires schools to check the status of new students when they enroll.

Since a federal judge upheld much of the law two weeks ago, many frightened Hispanics have hidden in their homes or fled Alabama.

The Obama administration is among the critics of the new law and asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to at least temporarily block enforcement, arguing in court documents that the statute oversteps the state’s authority. It’s not clear when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will rule on the administration’s request for a preliminary injunction.