Alabama Senate passes immigration bills targeting licenses, transport, DNA collection

Yahoo

13-02-2025

Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, speaks to a colleague on the floor of the Alabama Senate on Feb. 4, 2025. The Alabama Senate advanced three immigration bills Thursday to restrict undocumented migrants by banning certain out-of-state licenses, criminalizing their transport, and requiring law enforcement to collect their DNA and fingerprints. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
The Alabama Senate advanced three immigration bills Thursday meant to target immigrants in the country without permission and those who assist them.
The bills, collectively, would ban driver's licenses from at least two states issued to migrants in the country illegally; ban transporting immigrants without status into Alabama, and require law enforcement to collect DNA and fingerprints from detained migrants.
'The goal is to let illegal immigrants know that unless they have proof of lawful presence, unless they're here legally, that they shouldn't be in Alabama,' said Sen. Chris Elliot, R-Josephine, a sponsor of one of the bills.
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Most of the bills were amended after Democratic senators, who often mount hours-long filibusters on bills they oppose, pushed forward changes on the bills.
'I see as a win at the end of the day, when, if I could water this bill down, if I can get into a position to where it's better, better than what it was,' Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said after the Senate adjourned on Thursday.
SB 53, sponsored by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, establishes a process to determine immigration status detained by law enforcement and establish the crime of human smuggling if a person knowingly transports a person living in the country without authorization into Alabama. The bill passed 24-8.
SB 55, sponsored by Elliot, invalidates out-of-state driver's licenses issued without legal presence verification. It passed 24-4.
SB 63, sponsored by Sen. Lance Bell, R-Pell City, requires fingerprinting and DNA collection from non-citizens in custody. The bill passed 24-7.
SB 53 had drawn sharp criticism from opponents, who noted that said language in the bill that made it a crime to 'harbor' a person without legal status echoed parts of the Fugitive Slave Act. The law, revised in 1850, forced officials to assist slaveowners in recapturing people who escaped slavery and threatened those who assisted with those escapes with jail time and fines.
The section evoking the Fugitive Slave Act was dropped in a substitute version of the bill adopted Thursday.
Singleton also offered an amendment to SB 53 that would exempt teachers and lawyers from crimes of human smuggling if they knowingly transport a migrant without legal status into Alabama. He said that was to protect lawyers traveling with clients to one of the closest immigration courts in Georgia and Louisiana and teachers taking students on field trips. The amendment passed 32-0.
Kitchens said after adjourning that he had discussions with members from the Democratic Party that led to these changes.
'Even working across the aisle with members on the other side of the aisle, we didn't see that comparison, but there were some changes made through that discussion,' Kitchens said.
Miguel Luna, policy fellow at the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ), said in a phone interview after the bill's passage Thursday that even with that language taken out, it still gives him 'pause.'
'It's trying to compare two things, for example, human trafficking with individuals who are here and an undocumented fashion, when both of those things aren't really connected, and it's kind of just offensive in a way,' Luna said, and added that the bill could still target organization like ACIJ for helping migrants.
Singleton also offered an amendment to SB 55 allowing individuals with a license affected by the law to show other documentation showing proof of lawful status, which passed 32-0.
Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, offered an amendment that would provide notice on signs welcoming drivers to Alabama of the potential law invalidating certain driver licenses.
'I think it would be worth it to put the notification up then be embarrassed,' she said during the debate.
Elliot said he was open to the amendment.
'I'd love nothing more than have a sign up that says 'If you're here illegally, turn around,'' he said.
Coleman-Madison's amendment passed 29-0.
Nineteen states currently offer driver's licenses to immigrants living in the country without legal permission, but only Connecticut and Delaware offer licenses that are distinguishable from other classes of driver's licenses, making them the only states targeted by the legislation. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles keeps a list of 'out-of-state license classes no longer accepted in Florida' and it includes only Connecticut and Delaware.
Luna said that the bill could have unintended consequences, potentially making roads less safe and harming Alabama's economy.
'If people are not allowed to drive anywhere, they're not going to be incentivized to work,' he said.
SB 63, which would require DNA and fingerprint collection from noncitizens in custody, adding them to a state's forensic database, passed without much discussion. Luna said that the bill unfairly criminalizes immigrants.
'It's like they're trying to immediately criminalize all undocumented immigrants who are here because of the crime they committed in coming to this country,' Luna said.
SB 77, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-Alabaster, which would add fees to international wire transfers, was on the Senate agenda Thursday but was held after Weaver said it would have to start in the House due to constitutional requirements.
House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, indicated Thursday the chamber may take up some immigration bills next week.
'I think you will see some of those probably in the House along with the safety package that the governor had a press conference with, I think you will see that,' Ledbetter said. 'That is probably going to take a big part of the week because there will be a lot of conversation around some of those bills.'
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