Alabama House committee approves immigration detention bill

An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved legislation that would allow local law enforcement agencies to arrest undocumented immigrants.

Members of the House Public Safety and Homeland Security committee approved HB 376, sponsored by Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, on a voice vote. The vote came after the committee sent the bill to a subcommittee to make changes to the legislation.

“I am very hopeful that we can provide every tool that we need to keep our community safe, and we will see what happens from here as far as the legislative process,” Yarbrough said in an interview following passage. “I am happy with the changes. I think all good legislation you have to work toward a compromise and keep the interest of all good parties involved. So that is what we have tried to do.”

Republican members of the committee acknowledged concerns with the legislation.

“I think we got all of our concerns dealt with in this compromise,” said Rep. Ron Bolton, R-Northport. “I know the sheriffs are adamantly opposed to the overall bill, but I think it is workable.”

Jimmy Lambert, executive director of the Alabama Sheriffs Association, said in an interview after the committee meeting that sheriffs are concerned how the bill will affect their operations throughout the state.

“We don’t have the resources  to enforce immigration,” he said. “Sheriffs can support it, but there is already an agency that does that.”

Immigration to Alabama is low compared to the rest of the country. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 3.8% of Alabama’s population is foreign-born, compared to 14% for the country as a whole.

The committee preserved the primary elements of the bill, which allows sheriffs and municipal police jurisdictions to enter into agreements with the federal government to enforce immigration laws.  Under current state law, those arrangements are limited to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.

The legislation allows agencies to “arrest any individual based on the individual’s status as an illegal alien or for a violation of any federal immigration law, and to transport them to detention facilities as allowed under federal law.

Law enforcement must attempt to confirm a person’s immigration status when detaining someone and must obtain assistance from interpreters in case there is a language barrier.

In case of any doubt, officers and deputies must contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s Law Enforcement Support Center to obtain information about a person’s immigration status.

The bill prohibits law enforcement from detaining individuals solely to determine their immigration status unless ICE has issued written instructions to detain the person based on the individual’s immigration status.

The bill also limits detention of immigrants to 48 hours unless a federal judge or magistrate signs a warrant extending detention.

The original version Yarbrough filed included a provision that would deny funding to an agency for violating the terms of the law.

The new version requires the Attorney General’s Office to report the violation to the governor who will then issue a news release reporting details of the violation. Other language was also added that nothing in the bill violates the U.S. Constitution or the Alabama Constitution.

Critics compared the legislation to HB 56, the 2011 anti-immigrant law that permitted law enforcement to determine the immigration status of those they stop, detain or arrest. A coalition of civil rights groups challenged the bill that eventually became law and in a 2013 court ruling blocked law enforcement from enforcing the legislation’s key provisions.

“Obviously, we will have to read the bill as substituted, we have not seen that,” said Katie Glenn, a policy associate with the Southern Poverty Law Center. “I think the reality of the situation is that we can look back to HB 56 and see what has happened in Alabama and what will happen when we target folks based on their immigration status.”

The legislation heads to the Alabama House floor. The bill needs three legislative days to pass. There are six legislative days left in the session.