Alabama’s new immigration law soon to take effect

A new immigration law in Alabama will force all residents to prove citizenship prior to buying vehicle tags or renewing licenses from September 1, the Troy Messenger reports. "To prove citizenship, residents can show a valid driver's license, passport or Social Security card," Pike County Probate Judge Wes Allen told the media outlet. "Our office will be required to make a copy of each document provided and keep a file with that information." The new mandate will prevent residents from renewing vehicle tags online or via mail, resulting in longer lines and wait times at probate offices, the Enterprise Ledger reports. Alabama's new law also applies to licenses or registration of other activities, such as hunting, fishing or diving. Each person must provide an acceptable form of identity verification to prove they're a U.S. citizen. This means that additional documents will need to be stored on office servers, which aren't equipped for the impending volume. As a result, staff will be forced to manually file documents, increasing the probability of misplacement in addition to consuming additional office space. Once verification has occurred, citizens won't need to repeat the process annually.