Latest news with #HB56
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Alabama House passes two bills targeting immigrants without legal status
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Protesters march during a nonviolent protest in Birmingham, Alabama, in protest of bills targeting immigrants on Saturday February 22, 2025. The Alabama House of Representatives Tuesday passed two bills targeting immigrants without legal status. (Andi Rice for Alabama Reflector) The Alabama House of Representatives passed two bills on Tuesday that target immigrants without legal status in the state. SB 53, sponsored by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, would require law enforcement to determine the legal status of those they have a 'reasonable suspicion' of being in the country without status during stops. The bill also makes it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a person to 'knowingly transport into this state another individual if he or she knows is an illegal alien,' which the bill defines as human smuggling. 'It codifies the practice that jail administrators are already doing now in terms of reporting illegal immigrant detainees and verifying their immigration status,' said Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, who carried the bill in the House. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, questioned what 'reasonable suspicion' is. 'If you're not profiling, what is your reasonable suspicion that they're unlawful?' Jackson said. 'Being Hispanic is not a crime. Being Spanish is not a crime.' The language is similar to language in HB 56, the 2011 state law that attempted to criminalize the lives of immigrants without legal status. Federal courts gutted much of the law. The House adopted a Judiciary Committee substitute 92-0 that provided exceptions for people to transport people without legal status. One is for health care providers transporting patients, if people are transporting people for religious or charitable reasons, or people that an attorney who represents an individual authorizes. The Senate approved the legislation in February, after the body removed language in the original bill that echoed language in the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act that threatened those who helped enslaved people escape with fines and imprisonment. The bill offers several exceptions for people who are transporting people who are not legally authorized to live in the U.S. into Alabama, such as attorneys transporting clients to different immigration facilities or educators escorting their students for a school related activity. The legislation was criticized by the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice at a public hearing and in a statement Tuesday. 'SB 53 puts U.S. citizen family and friends at risk of felony charges for simply driving their loved ones. It was unconstitutional when the Alabama Legislature did it in 2011, and it is unconstitutional now,' Executive Director Allison Hamilton wrote in the statement. Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, said he is concerned about the situations that are not listed as an exception in the legislation, like going to a wedding across state lines and one person in the car is undocumented but is married to a U.S. citizen. 'Does that not concern you that people just doing innocent things, visiting family, doing joyous occasions like a wedding that they can be charged with a felony for smuggling?' Ensler asked Robbins. The Coalition had similar concerns. 'I live really close to the Georgia border and not everyone in my family is documented. I can't believe it would be illegal for me to drive my in-laws to the nearest hospital since it crosses the state line,' Jordan Stallworth, civic engagement coordinator at the Coalition, wrote in the statement. 'This type of targeting is dehumanizing and demoralizing. My family deserves better. All our families deserve better.' Robbins said there is a 'serious problem' in the state and the country with bad actors. 'I think that we've got a serious problem in the state and the country of people transporting individuals for commercial reasons and exploiting them for cheap labor,' Robbins said. 'I think we have to do something to try to address that problem. I am more focussed on addressing those bad actors.' According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 4% of Alabama's population is foreign-born. The national average is 14.3%. The bill passed 80-18. It goes to the Senate for concurrence or conference committee. There are two days left of legislative session. The House also passed SB 63, sponsored by Sen. Lance Bell, R-Riverside, which requires fingerprinting and DNA collection from non-citizens in custody, adding them to a state's forensic database. Rep. Mark Shirey, R-Mobile, carried the legislation in the House. He said the bill will expedite the process for DNA results. 'Right now when they detain an illegal immigrant for the feds, they wait for the feds. The feds come to get them and they do the DNA and fingerprints and send it to the national lab,' Shirey said. 'They're backup is two and a half years and the backup in the state is two and a half hours.' The bill passed 76-7 with no discussion. It goes to Gov. Kay Ivey. 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Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska House advances deficit-fixing budget bill, but there's a catch
The Alaska State Capitol is seen on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in front of snow-covered Mount Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon) The Alaska House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill that seeks to solve a nearly $200 million state budget deficit, but legislators failed to approve spending from a state savings account, something needed to fix the deficit. House Bill 56, which passed on a 21-19 vote, is a 'fast-track supplemental' budget bill designed to address the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Because of lower-than-expected oil prices and higher-than-expected costs, there isn't enough money in the budget to pay for spending through the end of the year. That's caused lawmakers to turn to the Constitutional Budget Reserve, the state's principal savings account. 'The vote we're taking today is just about paying for what we've already authorized,' said Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage and co-chair of the House Finance Committee, before the vote. 'These items we've already authorized are for these immediate-term priorities like disaster relief, fire protection and ongoing lawsuits that were brought to us by the governor.' Spending from the reserve requires three-quarters of the 40-person House and three-quarters of the 20-person Senate, plus the assent of the governor. But on Thursday, only 21 members of the House voted in favor of the clause that unlocks the budget reserve. All of the 'no' votes came from members of the House's Republican minority caucus. All of the 'yes' votes came from the House's multipartisan majority. If the bill fails to pass the Legislature, Gov. Mike Dunleavy would be forced to make unilateral cuts to the state budget, impounding funding for various programs. For the moment, that's a distant prospect. Despite the failed budget reserve vote, HB 56 will advance to the Senate — 21 votes is the minimum needed to advance a bill from the House to the Senate — but the failed vote means that the House will need to revote on the budget reserve clause once the Senate acts. 'We're still early in the process,' said House Minority Leader Mia Costello, R-Anchorage. Historically, members of the House minority have withheld support for the CBR vote until after the Senate approves the bill. By waiting, the minority preserves its negotiating leverage, Costello said. That makes it less likely that minority-opposed provisions will be added to the bill. In addition, it's possible that the fast-track budget bill will later be combined with the budget bill for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. So-called 'turducken' budget bills have previously included one budget reserve vote for both fiscal years. Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake and a member of the minority caucus, said before Thursday's vote that the fast-track bill lacks minority input and that as a result, he could not support it. As currently written, the bill would use savings to pay for more than $111 million in previously unforeseen spending, including millions for wildfire response, Medicaid and disaster aid. Those additions were requested by the governor to meet state needs. One late-adopted amendment, approved Thursday by the House, restored a funding request for village public safety officers, who serve a police and lifesaving role in rural Alaska communities. On top of the additional spending, revenue is down about $80 million from what had been expected last year. The Senate Finance Committee has already scheduled hearings for HB 56, indicating that it may move quickly toward a vote of the full Senate. Even if the fast-track supplemental budget is adopted in time, lawmakers still must resolve an expected deficit in the 2026 fiscal year, which starts July 1. The House is expected to begin debate on a budget bill for that fiscal year next week. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Alabama Legislature's Late Gothic period
GI can't go to Goat Hill lately without feeling déjà vu. It started with Gov. Kay Ivey's State of the State address on Feb. 6. There was the trite invocation of the 'Gulf of America.' The vicious attacks on transgender Alabamians. And the constant talk about job creation and business investment that never seems to dent Alabama's high rates of poverty or low rates of workforce participation. Go after immigrants. Back The Blue. Make vague commitments to broaden a potentially catastrophic voucher program in the Education Trust Fund. It's all been done. There were a few departures from the theme. Like parental leave; a Glock switch ban and the Second Chance Act. But those variations underlined the roteness of the performance. You'll never lose money betting that a Republican politician will talk about crime until you think America is the latest installment of the Fallout franchise. But the time to tackle that was four years ago during the pandemic. Not when crime rates as a whole are on the way down. The craven attacks on immigrants, a small and vulnerable group? They're in line with the priorities of the GOP nationwide. But we already did this with HB 56, the 2011 state law that authorized legal harassment of the foreign-born and the people, organizations and churches that provide them aid. HB 56 was a disaster for immigrants in the state and businesses that counted on their work. You think we'd have learned not to throw Alabama's workforce into chaos in a moment of financial uncertainty, in an aging state that desperately needs young workers. But we have not. Nor have we made any efforts to address the state's actual problems. Alabama House leadership has already ruled out Medicaid expansion this year. So our rural health care crisis will continue. And for all the stated concerns for public safety, the Legislature is rejecting modest bills to address our appalling rate of gun deaths. There are a few ways to look at this. Republicans around the nation are engaged in Donald Trump cosplay, and are far more interested in his needs than the voters'. Ivey and the Alabama Legislature are not alone in parroting whatever lumpy batter of nouns and superlatives come out of the president's mouth. The state budgets appear to be less flush than they were in the past three years, when we had COVID relief money — from the bad, bad federal government — pouring into the Treasury. Lawmakers are understandably wary about rolling out new initiatives. Playing the hits is easier. But it also seems that our political class is out of ideas. Worse, they're trapped in politics that lead them to reject obvious solutions. The governor and the Legislature tell us how important it is to improve the state's workforce participation rate. You know one really effective way to do that? Encourage immigration. It creates jobs and expands the workforce. You want to tackle crime in Alabama? Make it harder to obtain a firearm. A Glock switch ban would be a good start; requiring gun owners to lock up their weapons would be better; restoring the concealed carry permit requirement would be better still. But our legislators are stumbling through an ideological rut, where new ideas are absent and old ones just trap us deeper in the mire. If ever you took an art class, you might have learned that in the Middle Ages, there was a Romanesque style of cathedral construction that emphasized heavy, solid forms. Then came the Gothic style, which brought light and height into the sanctuaries. And what came after that? Late Gothic. Which, in the traditional telling, made the old form more elaborate. Artists didn't look for innovative ways to raise walls or ceilings or inspire the faithful. They just caked the standard forms with saints and monsters and gaudy sculptures. It was an endpoint. Artists couldn't do anything more with the old style but couldn't think of anything new. It was, of course, more complicated than that. But that traditional picture seems to reflect where our not divinely-inspired state government is. A month into the 2025 legislative session, we have no focus; no overarching theme; nothing new worth exploring. We have a political class enthralled to a distant figure who wants to act like a king. And a government that seems more interested in catching his attention than serving the people who live in Alabama. We are stuck in the past. And putting a misguided faith in forms, ideas and structures that no longer have the ability to inspire. If they ever did. Maybe some issue will break through in the next few weeks that shakes off the exhaustion and brings innovation and new approaches forward. But for now, legislators don't seem interested in building something inspirational. They want to use the arches straining to support the state as canvases for the monsters inside their heads. Brian Lyman is the editor of Alabama Reflector. He has covered Alabama politics since 2006, and worked at the Montgomery Advertiser, the Press-Register and The Anniston Star. His work has won awards from the Associated Press Managing Editors, the Alabama Press Association and Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights. He lives in Auburn with his wife, Julie, and their three children. Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, an independent nonprofit website covering politics and policy in state capitals around the nation. This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: The Alabama Legislature's Late Gothic period | BRIAN LYMAN
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Alabama Legislature's Late Gothic period
A partial view of the roof of the Milan Cathedral in Milan Italy as seen in Ooctober 2021. The cathedral shows elements of the late Gothic style, which emphasized elaborate decorative motifs and was traditionally considered a sign that the earlier Gothic style had run out of ideas. A month into its legislative session, the Alabama Legislature also appears stuck in the past and out of ideas. (Juana) GI can't go to Goat Hill lately without feeling déjà vu. It started with Gov. Kay Ivey's State of the State address on Feb. 6. There was the trite invocation of the 'Gulf of America.' The vicious attacks on transgender Alabamians. And the constant talk about job creation and business investment that never seems to dent Alabama's high rates of poverty or low rates of workforce participation. Go after immigrants. Back The Blue. Make vague commitments to broaden a potentially catastrophic voucher program in the Education Trust Fund. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX It's all been done. There were a few departures from the theme. Like parental leave; a Glock switch ban and the Second Chance Act. But those variations underlined the roteness of the performance. You'll never lose money betting that a Republican politician will talk about crime until you think America is the latest installment of the Fallout franchise. But the time to tackle that was four years ago during the pandemic. Not when crime rates as a whole are on the way down. The craven attacks on immigrants, a small and vulnerable group? They're in line with the priorities of the GOP nationwide. But we already did this with HB 56, the 2011 state law that authorized legal harassment of the foreign-born and the people, organizations and churches that provide them aid. HB 56 was a disaster for immigrants in the state and businesses that counted on their work. You think we'd have learned not to throw Alabama's workforce into chaos in a moment of financial uncertainty, in an aging state that desperately needs young workers. But we have not. Nor have we made any efforts to address the state's actual problems. Alabama House leadership has already ruled out Medicaid expansion this year. So our rural health care crisis will continue. And for all the stated concerns for public safety, the Legislature is rejecting modest bills to address our appalling rate of gun deaths. There are a few ways to look at this. Republicans around the nation are engaged in Donald Trump cosplay, and are far more interested in his needs than the voters'. Ivey and the Alabama Legislature are not alone in parroting whatever lumpy batter of nouns and superlatives come out of the president's mouth. The state budgets appear to be less flush than they were in the past three years, when we had COVID relief money — from the bad, bad federal government — pouring into the Treasury. Lawmakers are understandably wary about rolling out new initiatives. Playing the hits is easier. But it also seems that our political class is out of ideas. Worse, they're trapped in politics that lead them to reject obvious solutions. The governor and the Legislature tell us how important it is to improve the state's workforce participation rate. You know one really effective way to do that? Encourage immigration. It creates jobs and expands the workforce. You want to tackle crime in Alabama? Make it harder to obtain a firearm. A Glock switch ban would be a good start; requiring gun owners to lock up their weapons would be better; restoring the concealed carry permit requirement would be better still. But our legislators are stumbling through an ideological rut, where new ideas are absent and old ones just trap us deeper in the mire. If ever you took an art class, you might have learned that in the Middle Ages, there was a Romanesque style of cathedral construction that emphasized heavy, solid forms. Then came the Gothic style, which brought light and height into the sanctuaries. And what came after that? Late Gothic. Which, in the traditional telling, made the old form more elaborate. Artists didn't look for innovative ways to raise walls or ceilings or inspire the faithful. They just caked the standard forms with saints and monsters and gaudy sculptures. It was an endpoint. Artists couldn't do anything more with the old style but couldn't think of anything new. It was, of course, more complicated than that. But that traditional picture seems to reflect where our not divinely-inspired state government is. A month into the 2025 legislative session, we have no focus; no overarching theme; nothing new worth exploring. We have a political class enthralled to a distant figure who wants to act like a king. And a government that seems more interested in catching his attention than serving the people who live in Alabama. We are stuck in the past. And putting a misguided faith in forms, ideas and structures that no longer have the ability to inspire. If they ever did. Maybe some issue will break through in the next few weeks that shakes off the exhaustion and brings innovation and new approaches forward. But for now, legislators don't seem interested in building something inspirational. They want to use the arches straining to support the state as canvases for the monsters inside their heads. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
State lawmakers file bill to provide education grants to spouses of killed, disabled officers
The State of Georgia already provides grants for educational needs to the children of fallen or disabled officers, firefighters and correctional guards. Now, lawmakers are working to expand those grants to include their spouses. House Bill 56 proposes to expand the number of family members eligible for the grants when law enforcement officers, firefighters or prison guards are killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty. Under the provisions of the bill, eligible students for the grants would be expanded in order to accommodate the change, with the legislative text still allowing for volunteer firefighters, law enforcement officers and prison guards' families to be taken care of in the event of a tragedy. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] TRENDING STORIES: South Fulton mayor stripped of most duties, must return expensive items he purchased Georgia bill would let students leave school for 'religious moral instruction' North Georgia man reported his mom missing. Deputies say he was hiding her body However, there are slightly different stipulations for each position. According to HB 56, volunteer firefighters' spouses and children would be eligible if they are killed or disabled while on duty and responding to emergencies, as well as when they're returning from doing so, or are performing lifesaving duties for life and property in training exercises. For law enforcement officers and non-volunteer firefighters, the spouses and children of paid officers and firefighters are eligible when responding to situations that would save a life, preserve the peace or prevent or attempt to prevent the commission of a crime or a fire. Prison guards' families would be eligible only if the guard is killed or disabled while on duty. If the bill is passed, it would also expand who can apply for the benefits now. Previous versions of the statute set the cutoff time as cases that occurred before July 1, 1980. Going forward, that date is now July 1, 2025. That means there are options for retroactive benefits to be applied, in addition to those impacted by a loss or injury in the present. The bill did not specify how many Georgians may be able to benefit from these expansions. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
