1. Sweet Home Is Not in Alabama
Mercedes-Benz is one of Alabama's most respected, and most needed, employers.
In November, Alabamians got another reason to worry about the new immigration law their legislature passed. A police officer in Tuscaloosa pulled over a rental car that had no tag and asked the driver for his license.
The man could only produce a German identification card. So the officer, mindful of the new law, promptly arrested him. Detlev Hager, 46, was held at police headquarters until an associate was able to retrieve his passport and German driver’s license.
It turned out that not only was Hager in the country legally, he was an executive with Mercedes-Benz who was here on business. The German automaker happens to be one of Alabama’s leading employers and the company builds SUVs at a large plant in Vance, 20 miles east of Tuscaloosa.
A month later, the embarrassment repeated itself when police in Lincoln, Ala., arrested another foreign auto executive who was here legally, helping put Alabamians to work. This time it was a Japanese employee with the Honda Motor Co.
One thing Alabama doesn’t discriminate against is auto executives it seems. It treats them all badly, regardless of ethnicity.
2. Marco Rubio Rewrites Family History
Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has been on a short list of possible running mates for the Republican presidential nominee. Rubio, 40, has been called the “crown prince” of the Tea Party movement and has enjoyed a meteoric rise in Sunshine State politics.
Part of his public narrative was telling people how his parents had fled Castro’s Cuba to seek freedom in the United States. The Tea Party ate it up. The problem with that politically alluring account is that Rubio’s parents left Havana and became U.S. residents in May 1956.
Not only was Fidel Castro not in power then, he wasn’t even in the country. Castro was in Mexico and wouldn’t return to lead the revolution until a couple years later.
But when it comes to Florida politics, you never let a year or two get in the way of a good story.
3. USCIS Gives Texas Teen Colombian Sabbatical
Immigration officials in Texas deported 15-year-old Jakadrien Lorece Turner to Colombia in May, claiming she had entered the country illegally.
She told authorities in Houston she was a 21-year-old Colombian. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and an immigration judge believed her, though she spoke no Spanish, had family in the area and had dubious IDs.
Turns out, she was a Texas runaway who had never set foot in South America. In January, the government flew her back to Texas.
Turner’s family has hired an attorney who is threatening to file suit over civil rights violation.
4. New Mexico Gov. Martinez Prunes Family Tree
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican who used to be a Democrat, became the first woman in the state’s history to win its highest office in 2010. A hardline position against illegal immigration was central to her victorious campaign and rapid rise within the GOP.
That position got a little uncomfortable in 2011 when Martinez was asked about her own family tree.
In September, she admitted that her paternal grandparents had entered the United States “without documents.” She refrained from using the term “illegal.”
In November, Martinez reversed herself, and said she uncovered evidence that suggested her grandparents “might have followed the process” after all, though the documents remain subject to interpretation. It seems immigration paperwork was about as complicated 80 years ago as it is today.
5. Wanted: Joke Writer for Herman Cain
Former pizza magnate and Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. Photo: Getty Images
Former pizza magnate Herman Cain earned a spot on the 2011 list when he talked about border security while campaigning for the Republican primary in Iowa. He said if elected president, he would build a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Somebody asked me, well, what kind of fence would you build? I tell you, it would be a combination of technology and a real fence. It would be about 20 feet high. It would have electrified barbed wire on the top. And on this side of it, it would have a moat the depth of a football field. And yes, Mr. President, it would have alligators in it.”
Cain spent the next few weeks claiming he was just joking and saying “people should lighten up.”
