News

Marchers along Selma-Montgomery trail to focus on Ala. immigration law on Thursday

MONTGOMERY — Demonstrators marching from Selma to Montgomery in protest of Alabama’s voter ID and immigration laws plan on making the state’s toughest-in-the-nation crackdown on illegal immigrants the focus of their march on Thursday.

Demonstrators have been marching since the ceremonial crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 4 to commemorate “Bloody Sunday,” where hundreds of marchers protesting the shooting death of Jimmie Lee Jackson were brutalized by Alabama State Troopers.

The goal of the modern march is to call attention to laws organizers say are suppressing the right to vote. Alabama’s voter ID law will go into effect in 2014 and require citizens to show photo ID at the polls.

The immigration law requires Alabamians prove their citizenship during police stops, licensing and other official transactions.