Ala. governor quiet on immigration

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama's governor is confident he did the right thing four months ago by signing a strict law that catapulted the state to the forefront of America's debate about illegal immigrants. But he is declining most interviews about it because he wants his administration to be remembered for other issues.

"I don't want to be perceived as the face of illegal immigration bills in the country, and I could be that," Republican Gov. Robert Bentley told The Associated Press on Friday during a rare interview about the law.

Bentley said Alabama has become the focal point of the immigration issue because the Alabama Legislature passed "the toughest immigration law in the country" in June, eclipsing Arizona and other states that passed less comprehensive laws.

While federal courts have blocked major sections of the law as encroaching on federal powers, Bentley said he signed the legislation precisely because federal inaction has forced states to tackle illegal immigration on their own.

But Bentley, a Republican in office for seven months, said he wants to be remembered not as a governor who cracked down on illegal immigrants but as one who created jobs and solved problems.

"I could take over (Arizona Governor) Jan Brewer's place because every day we get someone from a national news program who wants us to be on live with them talking about the immigration issue. We've intentionally not done that because I don't want to add fuel to the fire across the country where people continue to look at Alabama in a negative light," he said.

He said many people who have never visited the state still think it is in the civil rights era.

"It's going to take us a long time to outlive those stereotypes that are out there among people that Alabama is living in the '50s and '60s," Bentley said.

He said Alabama is now a diverse state that has recruited many foreign industries. He noted that he was in Tuscaloosa County on Thursday to announce 400 more jobs for the Mercedes auto assembly.

The Obama administration, immigrant groups and others have challenged the act, and federal courts have at least temporarily blocked some of the toughest sections, including a provision that required public schools to check the citizenship status of students and let police file state charges against immigrants who can't prove their citizenship, A lower court separately stopped other provisions, including sections that would make it a crime for an illegal immigrant to solicit work or for anyone to harbor or transport an illegal immigrant.