Mercedes Exec Arrested Under Ala. Immigration Law #p2 #tcot

Good thing Alabama passed the nation's toughest immigration law: No longer can Mercedes-Benz executives drive around the state with impunity.

A German manager for the automaker, which opened a factory in the Alabama in 1993, was hauled into jail last week after an officer pulled him over because his rental car didn't have tags. He had his German identification card with him, but not his passport. The new law, passed in June, requires police to arrest anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally if the suspect can't produce identification.

He was released after one of his business associates retrieved his passport from his hotel, Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson told The Associated Press.

Upon hearing of the incident, Alabama governor Robert Bentley called the state's homeland security director to find out what had happened, the Washington Post reports. But there was no mistake; the arrest was exactly what was supposed to happen under the law that Bentley signed earlier this year. And, presumably, it's what now happens on a routine basis to other, less-prominent people around the state, whether in the country legally or not.

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