Hispanics are fleeing Alabama as immigration law goes into effect

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The vanishing began Wednesday night, the most frightened families packing up their cars as soon as they heard the news.

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They left behind mobile homes, sold fully furnished for a thousand dollars or even less. Or they just closed up and, in a gesture of optimism, left the keys with a neighbor. Dogs were fed one last time; if no home could be found, they were simply unleashed.

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Two, 5, 10 years of living here, and then gone in a matter of days, to Tennessee, Illinois, Oregon, Florida, Arkansas, Mexico — who knows? Anywhere but Alabama.

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The exodus of Hispanic immigrantsbegan just hours after a federal judge in Birmingham upheld most provisions of the state’s far-reaching immigration enforcement law.

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What the new immigration law means on a large scale will become clearest in a place like Albertville, whether it will deliver jobs to citizens and protect taxpayers as promised or whether it will spell economic disaster as opponents fear.

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Critics of the law, particularly farmers, contractors and home builders, say the measure has already been devastating, leaving rotting crops in fields and critical shortages of labor. They say that even fully documented Hispanic workers are leaving, an assessment that seems to be borne out in interviews here. The legal status of family members is often mixed — children are often American-born citizens — but the decision whether to stay rests on the weakest link.

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Backers of the law acknowledge that it might be disruptive in the short term, but say it will prove effective over time.