Church leaders challenge Alabama’s immigration law

Faith leaders have joined a coalition of civil rights groups to file a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama's new immigration law described by Gov. Robert Bentley as the strongest in the country.

Greater Birmingham Ministries, a multiracial organization representing 20 different faith groups,  including the Alabama Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, joined forces with the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center in challenging the bill signed into law June 9.

The bill, inspired by Arizona's controversial immigration law, will take effect September 1 and empowers law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of individuals. It also makes it a crime to knowingly transport an undocumented immigrant and requires school officials to determine the immigration status of students and their parents, among other provisions.