Alabama lawmakers are considering creating a database of immigrant workers and the so-called “labor brokers” bringing immigrants into the country to work.
“The point of that is to prevent these nefarious actors that bring people in the state and then extort them for rent and other expenses,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, to the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Robbins said the bill would require brokers to register their businesses and pay taxes and it would prevent kickbacks from employers.
He spoke to lawmakers facing a committee room full of immigration advocates who were attending an advocacy day at the state capitol. Advocates came to ask lawmakers to vote against a slate of recent bills.
At one point, when another lawmaker, Rep. David Faulkner, R-Hoover, asked if the labor brokers worked for drug cartels, advocates in the crowd broke out in exasperated laughter.
Instead, Allison Hamilton, executive director of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said the bill, HB302, would jeopardize workers’ privacy by creating a database to track them, possibly turning them into targets of anti-immigrant attacks.
She said she believes the state lawmakers writing such immigration bills have made little effort to understand or communicate with Alabama’s immigrant communities.
“I think this bill was misrepresented as something that’s about protecting workers,” she said.
Immigrant rights groups partnered to host an immigrant legislative advocacy day Wednesday, drawing dozens of community members to attend a small conference in the morning focused on speaking to lawmakers about the experience of Alabama immigrants and encouraging them to vote no on legislation that advocates feel is discriminatory.
In recent weeks, Alabama lawmakers have filed legislation to make it a crime to knowingly transport an undocumented person across state lines, as well as bills to create a 4% international wire transfer fees to fund ESL education.
“HB297’s primary objective is to support communities that have been burdened by this immigrant influx,” sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Fidler, R-Fairhope, said in a press release from the speaker’s office last week.
A similar bill in the Senate would channel revenue to law enforcement to support the cost of carrying out deportations.
The Senate passed a bill two weeks ago, SB53 by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, allowing sheriffs and police to detain someone arrested for a crime for up to 48 hours to check their immigration status.
SB55 by Sen. Chris Elliott, R- Baldwin County, would stop recognizing driver’s licenses from other states if the driver did not have to show proof of citizenship or legal residency.
Another bill, SB63 by Sen. Lance Bell, a Republican from St. Clair County, would allow officers to take DNA and fingerprint samples of undocumented immigrants arrested for any reason.
HB3 by Rep. Chip Brown, a Republican from Hollinger’s Island in Mobile County, would require enhanced sentencing for undocumented immigrants convicted of felonies against minors and increase misdemeanor offenses against minors to felonies.
During the meeting of immigrant community members and advocates on Wednesday, Alabamian immigrants shared their stories with one another, mostly in Spanish.
Iveth Carillo, Chilton, said she was arrested in 2011, when she was 17 and undocumented, for driving with a broken headlight. She was separated from her infant son and incarcerated for five days
“I’m telling you that it’s ugly, it’s true, it affects you not having papers, it affects you. The police are racist, and these laws take effect immediately,” she said.
One man, a construction worker, said he has been here for decades and is in the process of becoming a citizen through his wife. He said he loves the United States and he thinks the immigration bills in the statehouse are unjust.
“I deserve to be here. I’ve worked hard, literally shedding tears and blood on the job. I’ve built hospitals, I’ve built many things. I pass by some places and say, ‘Oh, I planted that tree.’ I’ve built Alabama and I’ve built this country.”
Another man spoke of the need for the community to unite to stand against the legislation. He said he hopes lawmakers consider their own family immigration stories.
“Probably many of you will vote and have the future of our community in your hands,”said Angeles Patino. “Many of your relatives were also immigrants and came seeking a better life for their families,”
