AP October 14, 2011The federal government's top civil rights lawyer is asking Alabama immigrants to report any problems caused by that state's tough new law against illegal Immigration.
The assistant U.S. attorney general in charge of civil rights, Thomas Perez, met with scores of Hispanics and others at an elementary school in Birmingham on Thursday night.
Perez said the Justice Department needs information about any potential civil rights violations under the law. Speaking in both Spanish and English, he gave the crowd a telephone number and email address set up to take complaints.
The Obama administration is asking a federal appeals court to block the state law, widely considered one of the toughest on immigration in the country. The Justice Department calls it an infringement on federal law.