Immigration consumed the Alabama Legislature in 2025. Not this year.
Lawmakers considered a total of seven bills that would have affected immigrants in several ways, from immigration enforcement to their eligibility to seek elected office. But unlike 2025, when the Legislature passed two immigration-related bills, none of this year’s immigration legislation passed by the time the session concluded Thursday.
For immigrants’ rights groups, that was a relief.
“We were concerned with any bills that seemed to want to increase penalties, fines and punishments based on someone’s status,” said Carlos E. Alemán, chief executive officer of the Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama, an organization that advocates on behalf of immigrants. “We have processes already in place that are to be applied equally across the population, so we are always concerned when there are any bills that seem to want to punish people for who they are and not what they did.”
Alabama has a relatively small foreign-born population. The U.S. Census estimates that about 4.5% of the state’s population was born in another country, compared to 14.8% nationwide. But state Republicans, following President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, have repeatedly introduced measures aimed at punishing immigrants without status, including 2011’s House Bill 56, which tried to criminalize every aspect of their lives.