“It’s been contentious at times, because it’s brought a lot of the unknown,” said Elizabeth Summers, managing editor The Sand Mountain Reporter, a local paper. “And people don’t deal well with the unknown.”
Like cities and towns across the country, people in Albertville Friday were trying to make sense of what will change and what won’t after President Obama announced his executive action extending protections from deportation to millions of undocumented immigrants.
For the group of early-bird regulars having breakfast at the local McDonald’s, the news was expected and unwelcome.
Joey Hartline, a local contractor, called Mr. Obama’s action an act of “domestic terrorism.”
“He needs to be arrested and tried for treason,” he said.
Others are already daring to hope. A few hours later at El Sol King Pollo — just before a lunch rush that would see the restaurant fill to capacity with white customers — Maria Garcia, a waitress, said that she hoped that Mr. Obama’s action would change her neighbors’ opinions about people like her.
“A lot of people don’t like us because we’re illegal,” said Ms. Garcia, 29. “But now we can emerge from the shadows, we can go into the streets without fear.”
White people, she said, often say that people like her do not pay taxes. No more.
“Now we will pay like any other person,” she said, adding: “It’s going to change this place a lot.”
The most important element of Mr. Obama’s action, announced Thursday night, will give temporary protection to immigrants like Ms. Garcia, who have lived in the country for five years, and whose children are United States citizens or lawful permanent residents (they must also prove that they have not committed serious crimes).
For the Latinos of Albertville, it marks a dramatic turnaround from 2011, when state legislators passed one of the nation’s toughest laws targeting illegal immigrants.
The goal, a sponsor said at the time, was to “make their lives difficult and they will deport themselves.” In Albertville, many Latino families vanished.
But the federal courts eventually rolled back many aspects of the law, and soon the immigrants were back, it seemed, in full force.
Those unable to lay low enough found themselves paying steep fines for driving without a license. Or worse.
“It has been the saddest thing for so many people who were here, and in every other way following the laws,” said Alejandro Silvestre, 36, a Guatemalan-born father of three and an owner of a strip-mall cellphone shop. “But they got grabbed and sent back to Guatemala or Mexico and their families stayed here. Sometimes their kids were raised by others. For me, thank God, that has never happened. But one is always thinking of that.”
Mr. Silvestre is among those who are hoping their lives will be transformed by Mr. Obama’s action. On Thursday evening, just before the president’s speech, he imagined the places in the United States he may soon visit without fear of being deported. “This is a great country,” he said, “but what does it matter if we are unable to travel and enjoy it?
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