Isidro Gonzalez holds the American flag during a protest in Birmingham, Alabama of anti-immigration bills in the Alabama Legislature February 22, 2025. About 500 people attended the rally. (Andi Rice for Alabama Reflector)
BIRMINGHAM — Nine-year-old Ballan Medina joined his parents and at least 500 immigrants and supporters in Birmingham Saturday for a simple reason.
“They like it here,” Medina said.
The protest at Railroad Park in support of immigrants comes as the Trump administration is moving to rapidly deport those without legal status and as the Alabama Legislature has advanced several bills targeting immigrants in the 2025 session.
The bills would ban driver’s licenses from at least two states issued to migrants in the country without permission; ban transporting immigrants without status into Alabama and require law enforcement to collect DNA and fingerprints from detained migrants.
Another bill would allow law enforcement to hold someone they suspect is in the country without permission in custody for up to 48 hours until they verify their legal status with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Alabama’s immigrant communities are small compared to the rest of the country. According to the U.S. Census, only 4% of the state’s population is foreign-born. In the United States as a whole, 14.3% of the population was born in another country.
People started trickling in the park entrance around 1 p.m., but quickly picked up within an hour, with hundreds of people, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder so they could hear the speakers, showing up before the crowd marched up and down 1st Avenue in downtown Birmingham. As they marched, the crowd chanted, “Say it loud and say it clear, immigrants are welcomed here,” and “The people united, will never be divided.”
Isabella Roque, a 14-year-old from Birmingham, said she was here “to fight for everyone who doesn’t have a voice,” like her “tios” and “tias,” or uncles and aunts. She said she hopes people understand that different people have different stories, and that “you never know what every person is going through.”
“I hope that we make people realize what they’re doing is wrong, and that America was built off Black and brown [people], and that they realize basically what they’re doing is wrong,” Roque said.
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The protest was organized by young college students, who said they feel they not only have the feel like its up to them to organize because so many people in the community are “voiceless.”
Isabella Castro, a University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) student and one of the organizers said to the crowd that she stood in there “recognizing her privilege” of advocating, but also the privilege to work and go to school.
“Dignity and human rights are not only privileges granted to some, but they are a birthright to every individual,” she said.
Miguel Luna, a University of Alabama in Birmingham (UAB) and one of the organizers, said in a speech that they were there to fight for all immigrants, from DACA students who may feel uncertainty about their status to those fleeing violence in their home countries, and to remind lawmakers that they are united and and their voice “can and will make a difference.”
Luna said he was there to “demand” leaders in Birmingham, Alabama and the U.S. recognize the contribution of the immigrant community and work towards creating a path to citizenship.
“[My parents] came here like so many others, with dreams of a better future, not just for themselves, but for their children, for their families and for the generations to come. They have worked tirelessly, tirelessly, contributing to this country in ways that are often unseen yet invaluable,” Luna said.
He added immigrants have built homes, raised families, paid taxes and “enriched our communities with their cultures, labor and their resilience.”
“Yet, despite their sacrifices, despite their contributions, immigrants in this country, our families, our friends, our neighbors, are constantly under attack, policies are being written not to uplift them, but to push them into the shadows,” Luna said.
Castro and Luna are also plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit against a state law barring public funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Juan Manuel Garcia, a Birmingham resident who immigrated with his wife from Mexico nearly 30 years ago, said that after President Donald Trump came into office, it’s been a different way of living each day.
“We try to live today because we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. So, everyone is very worried. It’s depressing. It’s sad. Too many emotions,” Garcia said in an interview, which was conducted in Spanish.
He said that they are here in search of the “American dream” and for a better future.
“If we’re here, it’s because we want a future for our families, especially our children, my wife,” he said.
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