MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama state lawmakers advanced two bills targeting illegal immigration Wednesday.
House Bill 3, sponsored by Rep. Chip Brown, R-Hollingers Island, would enhance criminal penalties for undocumented immigrants convicted of felonies in cases where the victim is a minor. For instance, the bill would see a Class B felony charge automatically elevated to a Class A felony, should the accused be an undocumented immigrant and the victim of the alleged crime a minor.
“A crime against a minor is so egregious that we all agree that it should never happen,” Brown said, introducing his bill to the House Judiciary Committee.
Brown introduced a substitute to his bill that would provide, in cases where an undocumented immigrant be convicted of a misdemeanor where there is a minor victim, that the charge automatically be elevated to a Class C felony. He explained that the purpose of the amendment was to ensure the indicted individual be charged with a felony for any crime against a minor for the purpose of assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement in eventual deportation.
“First of all too, there’s already been a crime committed in trespassing into the United States, so when they’re in Alabama, eventually they’re going to be handed over to ICE, and if they’re convicted and we bump (the penalty) up, then they’ll do real jail time if they’re sentenced,” Brown said.
Well over a dozen people, many from the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, attended the meeting to oppose the bill. The bill ultimately passed out of the committee with no dissenting votes.
Allison Hamilton, executive director for ACIJ, told Alabama Daily News that her and her organization would continue to oppose the bill, and were it to pass, potentially challenge it in court as unconstitutional.
“We feel that it’s racially motivated, and that it’s also just unconstitutional to impose different criminal sentences on different types of human beings,” Hamilton said. “There’s no evidence that undocumented immigrants are committing more of these crimes; in fact, there’s evidence that immigrant communities have a lower crime rate than other communities in Alabama.”
The bill now heads to the House, as does Senate Bill 55 sponsored by Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine. It would make what are known as Driver Privilege Cards – driver’s licenses issued to non-citizens in a handful of states – not valid in the state of Alabama, and would require law enforcement officers to issue citations to those carrying them, similar to those issued for driving without a license.
“We have about 19 different states across the country that issue licenses that are specifically for folks who aren’t here legally, so what we are saying is we will not recognize those in Alabama,” Elliott said during a House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee meeting.
The bill has already passed in the Senate.
Both HB3 and SB55 are just two of close to a dozen bills introduced in recent weeks to target illegal immigration in Alabama. Republican leaders of the House and Senate have said the bills targeting illegal immigration were designed to complement President Donald Trump’s agenda of cracking down on illegal immigration.