(Reuters) – As Mercedes-Benz executive Detlev Hager negotiated the streets of Tuscaloosa last week, he drove right into the controversy over Alabama’s tough new immigration law.
The rental car he was driving, lacking a tag, caught the attention of a local policeman, who stopped Hager on Wednesday. When the officer asked for a driver’s license, all he had on him was a German ID card.
“He was taken into custody,” Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson said.
Under Alabama’s new immigration law, considered the toughest in the nation, everyone in Alabama must carry a valid identification card, including U.S. citizens. Before the new law, a citation would have been issued and the driver would have been sent on his way. Now offenders are taken to jail, Anderson said.
Full story: Alabama immigration crackdown nabs Mercedes executive