CULLMAN — The Cullman County revenue office, along with revenue offices statewide, is in a race to implement a series of recent reversals in immigration verification policy mandated by the state's top revenue officer.

After consulting with attorney general Luther Strange, Alabama’s revenue commissioner halted enforcement of Alabama's controversial immigration law in all of the state's revenue offices, removing local officials' power to determine whether applicants for vehicle tags and similar privileges are in the state illegally.

Alabama Department of Revenue commissioner Julie Magee issued a series of memoranda to revenue commissioners, probate judges and others charged with enforcing tax collection in all of Alabama's 67 counties calling for an immediate halt to the recently-implemented policy of verifying an alien's legal status when conducting transactions with the public.

"An alien may be denied the right to proceed with a business transaction with the State or a political subdivision only on the basis of a federal determination that the alien is unlawfully present," the memo ordered. "If you [state agent] are unable to verify that an alien is unlawfully present in the United States through a determination by the SAVE Program or by other verification with the United States Department of Homeland Security, then you should allow the alien to conduct the requested business transaction with your office."

The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements [SAVE] program is a federal information-sharing network used by state offices nationwide, as well as the INS, to determine aliens' resident status and their eligibility to receive myriad benefits at both the state and local levels.

The most recent memo essentially removed Alabama's self-imposed set of criteria for determining the legal status of those who transact property taxes and privilege fees related to vehicle and home ownership in the state's probate and revenue offices, deferring instead to the federal government's existing policy — and established data networks — on how to accomplish the same task.

Cullman revenue commissioner Barry Willingham said the new policy of making tag transactions contingent on U.S. citizens verifying their legal status, while simultaneously allowing transactions to proceed for those who cannot prove their citizenship, sends the wrong message to those who are in Alabama legally.

“The memo basically says that we're gonna treat all U.S. citizens as illegals, and have to document them — but illegals, now, I can't turn away,” said Willingham Thursday. “I'm going to turn away a U.S. citizen because he doesn't have documentation, but accept a transaction with an illegal because he doesn't have documentation. It's frustrating.

“It's just heartbreaking that we’ve had to turn so many people away and have caused so much frustration. We've turned several people away — even several U.S. citizens; people I actually know. It's ridiculous.”

The present state of affairs is intended to be temporary, a policy that steers local officials clear of responsibility for assessing a person’s legal status until the federally-sanctioned SAVE system — which requires computer access and training for employees — is available for use in local revenue offices.

Willingham said how long that process could take is anybody’s guess.

“I’m not authorized to enter into the agreement for the SAVE program; I'll have to get approval through the county commission when they meet on Tuesday,” Willingham explained. “Then we'll resubmit everything through the Department of Homeland Security, and wait for approval. The we have to go through the training webinars and manuals before we can start using it, so we might be 30 days or 60 days. I’m trying to be proactive and get out in front of it, but it’s hard to say how long everything is going to take.

“The main thing I want to get across is that, if you’ve been turned away for a tag in our office in the last couple of months due to immigration status or something else that disqualified you, like having an out-of-state license, if you come back in, we'll do the transaction now.”



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 270.