Advocates for immigrants showed up at a public hearing today and spoke out against a bill making it a crime to knowingly bring into Alabama an immigrant who is in the country legally.

The bill, SB53 by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, is one of several proposed by GOP lawmakers during this legislative session, following the example of President Trump’s efforts to deport people and crack down on illegal immigration.

Kitchens’ bill, which has passed the Senate, would create the crime of human smuggling.

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It says a person “commits the crime of human smuggling if he or she knowingly transports into this state another individual if he or she knows is an illegal alien.”

The crime would be a Class C felony.

Allison Hamilton, executive director of the Alabama Coalition of Immigrant Justice, said the bill would add new fear and complications for families who have been living and working in Alabama for decades and who have children who are citizens because they were born here.

“These families right now are preparing for the imminent threats of deportation and separation. I think everyone is aware nationally what’s going on with that,” Hamilton told the Alabama House Judiciary Committee.

Hamilton said parents who face deportation need to work with the consulates of their home countries to prepare to take their U.S.-born children with them.

That requires out of state travel, she said.

“Not only is it a huge risk for families to drive themselves across state lines with just everything that’s going on, but also to criminalize anybody who just wants to be a good Samaritan and help,” Hamilton said.

“To make it a felony for someone to do that is extremely concerning for us as an organization that believes that every human being deserves dignity and respect.”

Kitchens, the bill’s sponsor, said he has listened to concerns about his bill and made revisions.

That includes an exemption for lawyers who take clients to immigration courts in Atlanta or New Orleans because Alabama does not have a federal immigration court.

Rep. Tim Wadsworth, R-Arley, a lawyer on the Judiciary Committee, noted that attorneys generally do not take their clients to hearings, so it would be the family members making the trip across state lines to immigration courts who would be subject to the human smuggling charge.

Kitchens did not rule out more exceptions but said he did not want the bill to be weakened by loopholes.

A second exemption already added to the bill applies to education employees who, for example, might carry students across state lines on a field trip, including students who are not in the country legally.

Besides establishing the crime of human smuggling, Kitchens said his bill clarifies the process for state, county, and city law enforcement to determine whether a person who is arrested and brought to jail is in the country legally.

“The premise of this bill is to really give law enforcement the tools that they need, if you’ve committed a crime, if you’ve been put in handcuffs and taken to jail, they’ll be able to verify whether you are in the country legally or not,” Kitchens said.

The committee did not vote on the bill after the public hearing.

Rep. Jim Hill, R-Moody, the committee chairman, said the committee would vote on the bill next week.