First, police arrested a German manager with Mercedes-Benz for not having a driver’s license with him after his rental car was pulled over for not displaying the proper tag. With only his German identification card on hand, the 46-year-old executive was charged with violating the immigration law for not having proper identification. He was later released after a colleague retrieved his passport, visa and German driver’s license from the hotel where he was staying.

 

Under the new law, all drivers are required to carry a valid driver’s license, either from a U.S. state or from their native country. But these provisions did not stop law enforcement from ticketing another auto executive from overseas, this time from Japan.

 

Ichiro Yada, a manager for Honda Motor Company, was stopped at a checkpoint in Leeds and cited despite showing an international driver’s license, a valid passport and a U.S. work permit.

 

The incidents opened up Alabama to criticism from across the U.S. and other countries. The St. Louis-based Post-Dispatch newspaper published an open letter to foreign car companies welcoming them to relocate their businesses from Alabama to Missouri.

 

 

Alabama Red-Faced as Second Foreign Car Boss Held Under Immigration Law (by Ed Pilkington, The Guardian)