Alabama lawmakers have moved forward a bill that would give local law enforcement more authority to detain and arrest people who may be undocumented immigrants.

HB7, sponsored by Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, would allow state and local officers to enter into partnerships with the federal government, through memorandums of understanding, and directly pursue immigration enforcement.

“There’s no new laws added,” Yarbrough said to members of the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday before the committee voted to pass the bill. “It simply allows that partnership to take place just to address safety in our communities.”

The bill allows local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws. Yarbrough has named it the “Laken Riley Act,” a state version of the federal law sponsored by Sen. Katie Britt and passed by Congress in January in honor of a Georgia woman killed by an undocumented immigrant.

Currently, local law enforcement cannot ask people their immigration status unless they have been charged for something else. Alabama law enforcement has to refer all immigration enforcement to federal officials, typically U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Hoss Mack, executive director of the Alabama Sheriffs Association.

“If you had a reasonable suspicion or probable cause that the person was illegal, then you can travel down the immigration issue without an adjacent criminal charge,” said Mack, about what the legislation would change.

The bill would also allow smaller county jails to enter into agreements with ICE to house detainees. Currently, a handful of larger counties have contracts with the federal government to house detainees. Those contracts take years to establish, Mack said. Small jails occasionally have extra bed space that could be used to increase capacity in the state for holding detainees, he said.

Another aspect of the bill allows local law enforcement to transport immigration detainees who have not been charged with another crime, whereas currently that falls to federal officers. The legislation also requires local law enforcement to report anyone suspected of being undocumented to the federal government.

Yarbrough introduced the same bill last year. It was passed out of committee but met resistance from the Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

An estimated 60,000 undocumented immigrants live in the state, according to the American Immigration Council. They make up about 1.8% of Alabama’s workforce. About 183,500 people in the state are immigrants.

On Wednesday, the committee approved an amendment suggested by Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, to make the requirement that local law enforcement publicly share data about immigration enforcement an option, not a mandate.

Rep. Penni McClammy, D-Montgomery, questioned whether Alabama has an immigration problem.

“It seems like we’re passing a lot of immigration bills this year,” she said. “I kind of have concerns. Are we targeting people?”