The Alabama Senate passed a bill Thursday that the sponsor said would help state and local law enforcement identify and remove people who are in the country illegally and commit crimes.

Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, said his bill would allow state, county, and city police to detain someone arrested for a crime for up to 48 hours to determine their immigration status.

Kitchens said that would be a new tool for law enforcement because under current law they need federal authorization to detain a person for that reason.

“Right now, there is a 48-hour hold that they can petition through the federal government for,” Kitchens said.

“Instead of going through that petition process, (the bill) sets up the 48 hours for them to be able to verify the immigration status.”

Kitchens said the bill has a purpose similar to the Laken Riley Act, the first bill President Trump signed into law during his new term.

That bill, sponsored by Alabama U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, expanded the mandatory detention of immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Kitchens’ bill would make it a felony for a person to bring into the state another person who they know is in the country illegally.

The crime would be called human smuggling and would be a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Kitchens’ bill, SB53, is one of three immigration-related bills the Alabama Senate passed today.

Republican leaders in the GOP-controlled Legislature say immigration policies are a priority during the legislative session.

The bills move to the House.

Kitchens’ bill passed 24-8, with Democratic senators casting all the no votes.

Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said the immigration bills are unnecessary and will have unintended consequences.

“I think a lot of this is just a lot of grandstanding, pomp and circumstances, and I think we just need to settle down,” Singleton said.

But Singleton also said he appreciated the willingness of Kitchens to make changes in the bill that he said made it less objectionable.

The Senate removed a section of the bill that would have made it a crime to “conceal, harbor, or shield from detection” or to transport an illegal alien.

The Senate also added an amendment by Singleton that said an attorney transporting a client, such as to and from a court hearing out of state, would not be guilty of smuggling.

The amendment exempted educators from situations such as field trips across state lines that might include some students who are not in the country legally.

“We dealt with a lot of these unintended consequences that we think that are there in those bills,” Singleton said. “We see that as a win.”

“It’s a lot better than what it was,” Singleton said. “We really feel good about it with the amendments.”

Kitchens said removal of the section on harboring and concealing a person in the country illegally was a good compromise and helped narrow the bill to what he said was the original intent.

“If you’re here illegally, if you break the law, if you’ve been put in handcuffs and taken to jail, the law enforcement has the tools that they need to be able to verify your status,” Kitchens said.

SB63, by Sen. Lance Bell, a Republican from St. Clair County, would create a new mandate for law enforcement to take collect DNA samples and fingerprints from people in the country illegally who are arrested for any reason.

“Whenever a law enforcement agency in this state has an illegal alien in its custody, the agency may not release the illegal alien until the agency has collected a full set of fingerprints and a known DNA reference sample from the individual, if a sample has not previously been collected,” the bill says.

Bell said DNA samples are already required for many types of arrests in Alabama.

“This just adds one more class of individuals that DNA is getting collected,” Bell said. “Any felony, or misdemeanor sex crime arrest, that’s occurring in the state of Alabama, you’re already having DNA. Fingerprint. Photographs. Now this will add to that.”

Bell and Kitchens were part of a group of Alabama state lawmakers who went to the southern border in September.

Bell said the goal is not to unfairly target immigrants.

“A lot of them are here doing great work, being good citizens,” Bell said. “We’re just trying to capture the ones that are committing the criminal acts, doing things of that nature.”

“I think the Senate Republicans are working hard in trying to assist President Trump in his goal of securing the border and get us back to a safe state we used to be,” Bell said.

Bell’s bill passed by a vote of 24-7, with Democrats casting the no votes.

A bill by Sen. Chris Elliott, a Republican from Baldwin County, would say that Alabama does not recognize driver’s licenses issued in other states when the driver did not have to show proof of citizenship or legal residency.

Nineteen states allowed unauthorized immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses as of March 2023, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Elliott said out-of-state drivers whose licenses were invalid would receive a ticket for driving without a license.

The consequences could be more serious than that, though, because they would not be allowed to proceed on the road unless they had a passenger with a valid license who could take over and drive.

“If they are here illegally, don’t have any proof that they are here legally, didn’t prove that when they got a driver’s license in another state, then we’re not going to honor their license here in Alabama,” Elliott said.

Elliott’s bill passed by a vote of 24-4.

The Senate added an amendment by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, requiring the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to place road signs at the state lines where there are welcoming signs to notify drivers of the law.

“The goal is to let illegal immigrants know that unless they have proof of lawful presence, unless they’re here legally, that they shouldn’t be in Alabama,” Elliott said.

In 2011, the Alabama Legislature passed a broad immigration bill that the sponsors said was intended to drive illegal immigrants out of the state. Much of it was blocked by federal courts.

Minority Leader Singleton said the current legislation is less punitive than HB56 but said it sends a similar message that some people are not welcomed in the state.

“I just don’t think that that’s very humane when we start talking about how do we treat our neighbors and love our neighbors,” Singleton said. “And we say that we’re a Christian nation and we love our neighbors.”

Singleton said his perspective is shaped by the fact that his ancestors were brought to America on slave ships and he still confronts discrimination.

“So it’s hard to sit back and see other races of people go through the same thing,” Singleton said.