Oops. Man Cited in Alabama Senators’ Push to Enforce New Immigration Law is a Legal Resident

"A misdemeanor charge against an alleged undocumented immigrant in Etowah County, Ala., last week was billed as the first in the state under a controversial new law that allows police to check the immigration status of an arrestee.  Taken into custody Friday for allegedly obstructing a government operation during a drug raid, Mohamed Ali Muflahi, 24, who is from Yemen, was then charged with a misdemeanor immigration offense when he couldn't produce paperwork, such as a driver's license, to prove that he is in this country legally, reported the Gadsden Times.  A group of state senators wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding an investigation of how a man from a part of the globe considered by many a terrorism incubator could be in the U.S. without documentation and scheduled a news conference yesterday, the Associated Press reported.  There was just one problem: Muflahi, in fact, is a legal resident, as his lawyer was able to prove, the AP says.  The news conference was canceled and Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin said a learning curve is underway for all involved in such situations."

ABA Journal, Oct. 5, 2011.