A woman holds a child in a crowded room in preparation for committee meeting where lawmakers advances a number of anti-immigration bills in Montgomery on Feb. 5, 2025. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama Senate committee Wednesday advanced four immigration-related bills following a lengthy public hearing where opponents compared the legislation to American slavery and the Holocaust.
The legislative package came just a day after leaders signaled they intend to work on up to 10 immigration bills and move them fairly quickly.
One of the most debated measures, SB 77, sponsored by Sen. April Weaver, R-Alabaster would impose a wire transfer fee on international money transfers originating from Alabama. The bill would target migrants who she alleged don’t pay taxes but send money out of Alabama.
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“This bill is a step towards addressing the hundreds and thousands of dollars of untapped, untaxed cash that are sent out of Alabama annually,” Weaver said. “People are working for cash that they don’t pay taxes on, and then they’re wiring it to other countries.”
The bill would require money transfer businesses to collect a $7.50 fee plus 1.5% of the amount exceeding $500. The proceeds would go to a newly-created Sheriffs’ Immigration Enforcement and Detainer Fund which would be used “by county sheriffs to offset any additional costs and expenses related to enforcing or assisting the enforcement of federal and state immigration laws and the care and housing of individuals who violate immigration laws.”
Critics said the bill would hurt immigrants who regularly send funds to families abroad. Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, called the bill unfair to hardworking individuals while Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, said the legislation “amounts to theft.”
“Why are we taking this money?” he asked. “I’m hoping, I’m hopeful, that we can have a little bit more conversation about this,” Hatcher said. The senator added that immigrants already pay taxes that “they’re not able to enjoy,” referring to government services they can’t access.
Another bill, SB 63, sponsored by Sen. Lance Bell, R-Pell City, would require fingerprinting and DNA collection from non-citizens in custody. Bell said the bill extends an existing practice to include non-citizens and would improve law enforcement’s ability to track offenders across state lines.
“We already had that. We have a DNA database we’re already putting Americans in. We already have all of that. We’re adding just one more group to this database,” Bell said.
Opponents speaking during a public hearing said the legislation put privacy and personal data at risk and could lead to racial profiling. Jasmin Hernandez-Alamillo, a Birmingham resident and daughter of Mexican immigrants, said that the bill would contribute to racial discrimination and force people who contribute to Alabama to leave the state.
“I recently graduated from UAB with a Bachelor’s of Science in biomedical sciences. I am actively seeking to pursue medicine and create better and more accessible health care for all, and this bill, as well as all of the other anti-immigrant bills, are only going to deter me from wanting to stay in Alabama,” she said.
During the hearing, religious leaders also spoke out against SB 63. Rev. Julie Conrady, a Unitarian Universalist pastor from Birmingham, cited biblical teachings on treating foreigners with kindness and warned against overburdening local law enforcement with additional responsibilities.
“ICE already has the resources to collect DNA samples from those people they are collecting,” Conrady said. “To add this to law enforcement’s increasing burden to our local law enforcement, they’re already struggling with increased violence and all these other things they’re trying to handle.”
Other bills include SB 53, sponsored by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, which focuses on establishing a process to determine immigration status detained by law enforcement and creates a new crime of harboring or concealing a person without legal immigration status, which opponents said raises concerns about racial profiling.
Jerome Dees, policy director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, warned of the bill’s potential unintended consequences, such as criminalizing an Alabama teacher for taking students who may be living in the state without authorization to another state.
“(They) would technically be in violation of human smuggling and guilty of a Class C (felony),” Dees said.
Dees also said parts of the bill “intentionally or unintentionally” aligned with sections of the Fugitive Slave Act, the federal law that, as revised in 1850, forced public officials to cooperate with slaveholders attempting to return people who had escaped from slavery back into bondage and punished those who hindered such efforts.
Section 7 of the Fugitive Slave Act said, among other actions, that to “harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact that such person was a’ fugitive from service or labor’” could lead to a fine of $1,000; additional $1,000 fines for every person assisted, and up to six months’ imprisonment in jail.
SB 53 creates a crime of concealing a person without legal immigration status if a person “conceals, harbors, or shields from detection an illegal alien if he or she knows or reasonably should have known that the other individual is an illegal alien,” or if he or she attempts or conspires to do so. The bill makes such an act a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine.
Kitchens denied the language was intentional, saying that “it was to strictly say that someone who is here illegally, and knowledge of them being here illegally, to provide for that.”
SB 55, sponsored by Sen. Chris Elliot, R-Josephine, attempts to invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses issued without legal presence verification. The bill was introduced in the 2024 legislative session but did not reach the Senate floor for a vote. Opponents said that it could potentially hurt businesses in Alabama.
Dulce Victoria Rivera, a Birmingham resident and business owner, warned the bill could potentially disrupt business in the state by impacting supply chain.
“As a business owner and someone who contributes a large amount of tax dollars to the state, this could really hinder not just my business, but your home directly,” she said.
The bills move to the Senate for consideration.
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