Lawmakers who pushed for the state’s new immigration law claimed one reason they did so because they believe illegal immigrants are a financial drain on schools and government services.

But late in negotiations to blend House and Senate versions of the bill that ultimately became the law, they added a requirement that schools document the birth country of students and their parents.

The reason for adding the provision, the sponsors said, is because the state doesn’t really have good figures on the costs of educating illegal immigrant children.

Even before Gov. Robert Bentley signed the bill into law last week, immigration advocates and civil liberties lawyers were eyeing the school requirement. No other state with an immigration law has the requirement.

Attorneys for Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union and Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice said it’s a section they plan to study before proceeding with any related lawsuits they file against the state. The advocates question whether the law will make illegal immigration police out of public school employees, something that federal law doesn’t allow. They say being born in another country doesn’t make somebody an illegal

immigrant. Even some lawmakers who approve of some sections of the new law wonder about the cost of the process known as education tracking.

“We are not doing this to deport people; we’re not trying to turn schools into deportation police,” said House Majority Leader Micky Hammon, R-Decatur. He is the original sponsor of the House immigration bill.

Committee members know the federal law provides public K-12 education for illegal immigrant children, he said.

Hammon said Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, the Senate sponsor of the bill, added the provision on birth country tracking section to the bill. As to why, “you would have to ask Scott Beason about it,” Hammon said.

Beason is testifying in the federal bingo vote-buying case in Montgomery and was advised not to talk to reporters during the trial.

But other members on a House-Senate conference committee that developed the final version of the bill said the primary reason was data

gathering.

“People kept asking us questions about data on what illegals costs,” Hammon said. “We know illegals are a drain on school budgets, and we didn’t have good data on it,” Hammon said.

Beason thought requiring schools to document the birth country of students and their parents would be a way to find out what it costs, Hammon said. Sen. Clay Scofield, R-Guntersville, who served on the committee, said members knew that children born in the United States are U.S. citizens, but their parents may not be.

“The reason for tracking birth origin of their parents is to show the immigration link,” Scofield said.

Scofield said he thinks the point of the new law, including the provision on country of birth school tracking, is “to put pressure on Washington.”

Rep. Charles Newton, of Greenville, was the only Democrat on the conference committee.

Newton said he hasn’t heard concerns of immigration advocates who said some immigrants think they can no longer send their children to Alabama schools.

“The only thing I’ve heard is that some schools are concerned about the possible cost or time involved in collecting the data,” Newton said.

While Newton said possible cost associated with the process concerns him, he can see the value of gathering the data as long “as the method is legal.”

State Education Superintendent Joe Morton said state schools will comply with provisions the new law requires.

Since most Alabama students will already be in class before schools must begin collecting birth country information Sept.1, Morton said the greater impact will come in 2012.

Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union and other civil liberties groups said they will file suits challenging the law before the school requirements take effect Sept. 1.

M.J. Ellington can be reached at mjellington@TimesDaily.com.