From the Newsleader.com:
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Authorities said Wednesday they dropped a charge against a German Mercedes-Benz executive who was arrested under Alabama’s new crackdown on illegal immigration after a police officer caught him driving without identification required by the law.
While Tuscaloosa police arrested the man last week for not having proper citizenship documents while driving a rental car in the city, city attorney Tim Nunnally said in an email the charge was dismissed after the man later provided the documents in municipal court.
Police identified the man as Detlev Hager, 46. The company said he was in Alabama on business at the time but declined further comment.
The arrest drew widespread attention because the German automaker is one of the state’s leading employers, and its decision to build its first U.S. assembly plant in Alabama in 1993 provided the spark that helped lead to the state’s large automotive industry, which includes foreign manufacturers Honda, Hyundai and Toyota.
Republicans who support the immigration law say it will help create jobs for legal Alabama residents by driving away illegal immigrants, but some business leaders and critics of the law contend similar arrests could hurt economic development in the state by making it a less-attractive location for foreign companies.
This certainly sounds like dumb and dumber. In the heart of Dixie, a state with a horrible track record on race relations should be doing everything in its power to attract new business and to improve its image. The area is ripe for attracting new business because it is a right to work state, as a fairly low tax base, and already has an automotive industry base. So what clod decided to arrest one of the Mercedes Benz executives? Did they think they had discovered some well- preserved old Nazi on the run from I.C.E.?
