Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, from left, is congratulated in Montgomery by Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, Rep. Kerry Rich, R-Albertville, and Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, on June 9 after signing into law what critics and supporters have called the strongest bill in the nation for cracking down on illegal immigration. Alabama's anti-immigration act authorizes the formation of a new team of police agents, recruited and maintained by the Alabama Department of Homeland Security.
But the small agency, with just 14 employees in Montgomery, is hardly ready to seek out illegal immigrants statewide.
"We have the authority, but we don't have the funding to appoint special agents," said Spencer Collier, director of Alabama Department of Homeland Security.
The agency has a state budget of just $400,000, he said, or less than many elementary schools. The agency also manages $5 million in federal grants aimed at preventing terrorism. But the grants can't be used to enforce state law.
Such unfunded duties are not unusual within Alabama's new act; its 72 pages are rife with new burdens for employers, schools and police.
The sweeping bill also creates several new crimes, such as stopping your car in the roadway to hire undocumented workers, and codifies a separate set of privileges and rights. For example, illegal immigrants may apply for a marriage licenses, but face felony charges if they apply for a license plate.
And the law includes several threats designed to ensure enforcement, such as any citizen can petition the attorney general to investigate any employer for hiring illegal immigrants. The law exempts those who employ "casual domestic labor."
No state agency can interfere with the law. If it does, the governor can cut off all of its funds and begin to fine the agency up to $5,000 a day. In fact, if anyone knows of a state official who isn't enforcing this act, it's now a crime - obstructing governmental operations - not to turn them in.
Yet it takes money to enforce new laws.
And enforcement isn't even the biggest challenge for the Alabama Department of Homeland Security, said Collier. That will be creating a federal E-Verify program within 90 days so that every business with 25 or fewer employees can vet the immigration status of all new hires.
That means working with 91 percent of all businesses in Alabama, said Collier.
So instead of sending a host of anti-immigration agents through state police academies, Collier envisions consulting with sheriffs and police on the law's thornier questions.
For example, state law authorizes local police to question immigration status "where reasonable suspicion exists." Yet the law repeatedly warns that at no point may an officer use national origin as a basis for suspicion.
"It's a thin line," said Collier, saying his department would eventually work with local agents to find a way to meet state law and avoid civil rights violations. "It's our goal to make sure state and local law enforcement is properly educated."
The Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union have already promised legal challenges. But many are not waiting for the legal battle.
"The overwhelming sentiment is fear," said Caitlin Sandley of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama. "Folks are taking steps to prepare to return home or move to another state if necessary."
One of the law's co-authors, Micky Hammon, has told The Times that the goal of the law was to discourage illegal immigrants from putting down roots in Alabama. That could happen even if some portions of the law are unlikely to survive in federal court.
In Georgia, a federal judge this week struck down similar measures regarding detention by local police. "The widespread belief that the federal government is doing nothing about illegal immigration is the belief in a myth," wrote U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash Jr. this week in the Georgia decision.
But the judge declined to block other provisions. And Alabama's bill also touches schools and business and health care.
Under the new law, illegal immigrants can enroll in public school through their senior year, but can not attend public universities. State college officials, like police, are authorized to question immigration status through federal verification.
All school systems are charged with designating an official to substantiate the immigration status of each child. But it's a violation of the law to disclose the identity of those children to anyone other than federal agents.
And the Alabama Department of Education now must report the number of illegal immigrants school by school. That annual report to the Legislature must also tally the affiliated costs of everything from computers to school lunches, and analyze "effects upon the standard or quality of education provided" to U.S. citizens.
The law also outlines some distinctions in medical privileges. Illegal immigrants may receive emergency treatment without verified citizenship. They are forbidden organ transplants. They are allowed immunizations.
No one can knowingly give them a ride except police and paramedics. Witnesses and victims of a crime are exempted from being detained by police, but only until the case is settled.
Sandley pointed out that the sections of the law banning harboring or encouraging unlawful aliens could make it a crime for her group to help immigrants file federal income tax returns.
It's also a misdemeanor to knowingly rent to, transport or harbor an illegal immigrant. It becomes a felony if 10 or more illegal immigrants are involved in one act. Vehicles can be seized. It's also a felony to manufacture or sell false identification. But the felony charge doesn't apply if teenagers are using the false identification to buy alcohol or cigarettes.
Illegal immigrants caught seeking work face a $500 fine. Businesses who knowingly employ illegal immigrants face suspension of state and local licenses. Those who twice violate the law may forfeit licensure forever.
The law even creates a new class for lawsuits, enabling U.S. citizens to sue if a company hires a illegal immigrant instead, or retains an illegal immigrant when they are fired.
In Georgia, farmers have already complained about the loss of their work force.
Poultry accounts for 80,000 employees and $2.7 billion a year in receipts in Alabama, said Ray Hilburn with the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association. He said many employers were using E-Verify, and he didn't think the law would affect the price of chicken.
"I wouldn't say we're not worried. We worry about everything. But we haven't seen an impact yet," said Hilburn this week. "We think it's going to be worse in the construction business and the nursery industry."
Lynn Kilgore, executive director of the Huntsville Madison County Builders Association, said it's still too early to tell.
Congressman Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, this week called any labor shortage a short-term problem, saying U.S. citizens would fill the jobs. "Albeit, in many cases employers would have to raise the wage to attract American workers," said Brooks on Tuesday.
He said state lawmakers passed the recent act out of "despondency," as the federal government would not stop what he likened to a flood of people "who have broken into our homes."
Yet, illegal immigration, unlike burglary, remains a misdemeanor. Even under Alabama's new law, undocumented status is punishable by a fine of no more than $100 and by no more than 30 days in jail. If after 30 days, federal agents haven't claimed the offender, then he or she goes free.