CENTRE — Cherokee County Sheriff Jeff Shaver doesn't believe the legislators who passed Alabama's new immigration law thought things all the way through. But he's not going to let his doubts about the wisdom of the law prevent him from doing his job.

“We're going to go by what the law tells us to do and enforce it,” Shaver said Friday. “But we don't know exactly what that is yet because no one has had time to read it.”

Shaver said he will attend a statewide meeting of sheriffs Thursday during which the particulars of the law will be covered and, hopefully, a lot of questions answered.

“It's a state charge of a federal violation and I don't know how federal regulations will apply,” Shaver said.

The law passed in the 2011 regular session of the Alabama Legislature. The state's first Republican majority since Reconstruction led the effort to enact the tougher law, designed to deal with illegal immigrants. Republicans claim the federal government has failed to deal effectively with the issue.

On Thursday, a group led by the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (HICA) asked U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn to stay the law pending the outcome of a planned appeal.

Meanwhile, Shaver said his department doesn't have the luxury of waiting on the appeals process.

“We'll begin immediately enforcing the law, as it is right now,” Shaver said.

Shaver said it seems to him that the legislators who wrote the law did so without taking into account the additional expenses they would be forcing on counties and municipalities across Alabama.

“All of our deputies will have to undergo immigration training,” Shaver said. “I talked to the County Commission and explained to them that this is going to be a very expensive law to implement.”

Shaver said in addition to training deputies, the county will also now be responsible for holding anyone arrested as an illegal immigrant because of the way they will be charged.

“They're going to be jailed, basically, for trespassing and they'll be in our jail,” Shaver said. “The county will have to pay their medical bills, housing costs, food costs. If they have children, the Department of Human Resources will have to go and get their children.”

Shaver said he understands that a valid driver's license can be used as proof of citizenship, since citizenship must be proven to receive a license to drive in Alabama.

“And the law tells us if they do not have proper identification they must be arrested,” Shaver said.

Shaver said Cherokee County is relatively lucky, in that the percentage of foreign-born residents here is very small. Some nearby counties, however, are facing serious financial implications.

“DeKalb County, for example, could be out millions of dollars if they implement this law,” Shaver said. “And they have to implement it.”

Probate Judge and County Commission Chairman Melvyn Salter agreed with Shaver's assessment of the budgetary consequences.

“The people who wrote this bill do not realize the jeopardy they have put all of us in, as far as what the costs of this law are going to be,” Salter said.

Shaver said it seems to him that there are other implications no one thought of, including the consequences for Alabama's already-backlogged court system. A few weeks ago, thousands of court employees across the state were laid off due to budget shortfalls.

Now, Shaver said, the legal system is going to be inundated with even more defendants.

“What if you've got a bunch of people sitting in jail on misdemeanor trespassing charges,” Shaver said. “Does that interfere with holding a more serious trial, maybe for murder?”

Salter offered another example of the shortsightedness of the law.

“Municipalities across the state pay a set charge per prisoner, per day, to have them housed in the county jail,” Salter said. “No one has taken into account what the costs are going to be for cities and towns when someone gets arrested and sits in jail for 30 days and has to be taken care of.”

Salter said the lack of forward thinking by the state Legislature is unfortunate for everyone in Alabama.

“This could be endless. Counties could go bankrupt,” Salter said. “Something needs to be done about illegal immigration, but this was not the way to do it.”

Shaver was more restrained, but his disappointment with the state's new immigration law seemed every bit as apparent.

“You have to be careful about writing a law,” Shaver said, “or you might end up with one you really don't want.”