State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity) recently filed The Laken Riley Act in the House of Representatives, which would allow law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with federal agencies to enforce federal immigration and customs laws.
House Bill 376 (HB376), also called the Laken Riley Act, would bolster the ability of Alabama law enforcement agencies to further enforce immigration law.
The bill's name comes from the February abduction and murder of Laken Riley, who was an undergraduate student at the Augusta University nursing school and a former student at the University of Georgia. The suspect in the case is a 26-year-old illegal immigrant, Jose Antonio Ibarra, from Venezuela, who police say abducted her while she was jogging on the UGA campus.
The bill states that "state and local law enforcement agencies may enter into memorandums of understanding and agreements with the United States Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and any other 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 person in this state."
The bill would additionally:
· Require state and local government employees to maintain information relating to the immigration status of any individual.
· Allow state and local law enforcement officers to transport an illegal alien to the federal government's custody.
· Allow local law enforcement to arrest an illegal alien based on his or her status as an illegal alien or for a violation of any federal immigration law.
· Create standard procedures for intake and booking of illegal aliens and foreign nationals in county and municipal jails.
· Require jails to honor immigration detainer requests issued by the Department of Homeland Security in certain circumstances.
· Require quarterly reports by county and municipal jails regarding foreign nationals.
Yarbrough told 1819 News that he modeled his bill after a similar one that was currently being moved through the Georgia Legislature.
"It's modeled after HB1105 in Georgia; that's what sparked the idea," Yarbrough said. "So I had the bill drafted to model very closely HB1105 in Georgia. It makes sense that it would start there since that's where Laken Riley lived. "
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) also recently introduced The Laken Riley Act at the federal level. Yarbrough said he was already crafting his bill when Britt announced hers, saying, "I guess great minds think alike."
"From what I understand about [Britt's] bill is that it just tells ICE and other law enforcement agencies, 'Do you job,'" Yarbrough said. "This bill is meant to empower local law enforcement and invest them with authority to fix, in the short term, preventing crime; in the long term, cleaning up our country so that we get illegal aliens out of here that are not supposed to be here."
He continued, "Until we develop a better, a more comprehensive plan on how to deal with all these illegal aliens, it gives them the ability, in the meantime, to have the authority that they need and the legal structure to be able to, at minimum, prevent another Laken Riley from happening. And long-term, hopefully, get a president in there that cares about our border and give a hoot about people coming here in a legal manner."
Yarbrough said that local law enforcement is the best means to police and exercise discretion while working with federal enforcement agencies to determine the status of a suspect.
"What it does is allow local law enforcement to arrest or detain someone for up to 48 hours on suspicion of being here illegally while they check their status. The bill does not allow you to hold someone indiscriminately. You have to do your checking and see if they're here illegally. Right now, they don't have that authority," Yarbrough said.
Yarbrough said that the law enforcement he has spoken to about the bill is "all for it." Randy Hughes, the Chief of Trinity Police in Yarbrough's district, is one of them.
According to Hughes, the current procedures for dealing with illegal aliens were much better under former President Donald Trump.
"When Trump was president, when we took an illegal immigrant to the jail, if they committed a crime they would contact [federal law enforcement], and they would take them back. Now, none of that's happening. Even if you do a report, by law, nothing's getting done from the federal level. So, it's just becoming more and more of an issue," Hughes said.
"Even in my smaller town, we have a large number of illegal Hispanics in our town. So, this bill could be really good."
Hughes said that he likes the idea of a database system where identifying individuals without standard forms of identification can be more easily tracked.
"I like that database because it's going to give us more fingerprinting ability, because right now, they don't have any identification, so we don't know who's who. I know there are going to be some issues, but I think all of my colleagues in law enforcement are 100% behind it because we aren't getting any federal help with immigration," Hughes said.
HB376 currently has seven co-sponsors and was assigned to the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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