MONTGOMERY — Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, filed a bill Monday to expand state and local law enforcement’s power in enforcing federal immigration law.
If enacted, the proposed legislation would enable state and local law enforcement agencies to enter into memorandum of agreement with any federal agency “for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration and customs laws and the detention, removal, and investigation of illegal aliens and the immigration status of any individual in this state.” The state’s attorney general already has the authority to enter these agreements with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The proposed bill allows state and local law enforcement to arrest people who they think are undocumented and to transport these individuals to a federal facility within the state if they are confirmed to be undocumented.
Yarbrough sponsored a similar bill last session that passed in the House of Representatives but never received a Senate vote. Democrats in the House opposed the bill and raised concerns about the possibility of racial profiling and arbitrary deportations.
Rep. Phillip Pettus, R-Killen, a former Alabama State Trooper, is a co-sponsor of the bill and said these agreements worked well when he was in law enforcement.
“I like the bill. I was in law enforcement for 25 years, and we did memorandum of understanding with a couple of agencies on drugs and different things, and for every instance I was ever involved in them, they always worked great,” Pettus said.
The bill is called the Laken Riley Act and complements federal legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Katie Britt of the same name. Laken Riley, a nursing student in Georgia, was killed by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela while out for a jog in 2024. The federal law, which was signed by the president last January, requires the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented immigrants who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny or shoplifting.
“A law enforcement officer acting within the scope of his or her authority under any memorandum of understanding, agreement, or other authorization from the federal government may arrest, with probable cause, any individual suspected of being an illegal alien,” the bill reads.
State and local law enforcement agency employees could also send and maintain information about any person’s immigration status “as reasonably needed for public safety purposes” if passed. This would include looking into the immigration status of any person confined in a county or municipal jail.
The proposed legislation would establish reporting requirements for jails holding noncitizens.
“We want to protect the citizens of Alabama,” Pettus said. “That’s what this bill is about: trying to protect citizens of Alabama. If you’re here legally or illegally and you commit a crime, you know you should pay the consequences.”
The bill has 14 other GOP co-sponsors.
The legislative session begins today, and lawmakers will gavel in at 12 p.m.