Mississippi Democrats may have to defeat (again) an immigration law like Alabama's.

[pampango]

Mississippi lawmakers failed to adopt an immigration ID law last year but will try again in January.

State Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, struck out last year in his attempt at passage of legislation to require local police to enforce federal immigration laws. He said he intends to resume the fight in the new session. Fillingane said he wants Senate lawyers to review Alabama's stringent illegal immigrant law to determine what parts of it could be legally incorporated into a Mississippi law.

Immigration law opponent state Rep. Jim Evans, D-Jackson, said he is not counting on Fillingane and other immigration hard-liners to meet halfway on the issue.

Evans, an AFL-CIO organizer and board president of the Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance, said businesses in the state, especially agricultural ones, may be willing to team up to defeat another attempt at an immigration law. A broad coalition beat back last year's attempt and is likely to try for a repeat, Evans said.

He said his organization is not opposed to a "good program that will stop some of the illegal immigrants from coming in." What has occurred in recent times in Georgia and Alabama should bolster the argument for a more moderate approach to immigration control, Knight said.

http://www.sunherald.com/2011/10/31/3542227_p2/new-debate-expected-on-immigrant.html