Former Tuscaloosa Pastor Testifies Against HB13
A former Tuscaloosa pastor has spoken against proposed legislation that would expand local law enforcement's involvement in immigration enforcement operations. Dr. Kevin Thomas, formerly senior pastor at Forest Lake United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa, addressed his opposition to the Alabama House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.
House Bill 13 would enable state and local law enforcement agencies to enter into memorandum of agreement with any 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 individual in this state.” It is an authority already possessed by the Alabama Attorney General.
The now senior pastor at Birmingham's First United Methodist Church, related to committee members how news stories have frightened his adopted daughter from Guatemala. “As I read this bill, I see that it potentially makes any state law enforcement officer an ICE officer, including even those on her campus at UAB,” he said. “It enables those officers to arrest and detain someone on probable cause of being an undocumented immigrant. It doesn’t define what that probable cause looks like, and I’m curious if my daughter’s skin color is probable cause for her detention.”
Dr. Thomas, a University of Alabama graduate, told committee members his daughter is fearful of leaving the house because of the potential of her skin color attracting the interest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who operate with impunity in the state already.
Several local police departments and sheriff's offices have already partnered with ICE in anti-immigration operations in the state.
Ranking minority committee member Chris England, D-70), Tuscaloosa, told the hearing that he understands the fears of the Thomas family. He called their concerns not unreasonable based on this state's history of racial profiling.
“I’m not speaking from just some general terms,” England said. “As a black person in Alabama, I have experienced it myself.”
Thomas said he makes sure his daughter does not leave the house without her passport.
HB13 is co-sponsored Tuscaloosa/Pickens County Republican Rep. Ron Bolton.
South Alabama Rep. Matt Simpson, R-96), disagreed with Thomas and England, stating that Thomas’ comments linking skin color and arrest creates fear of interactions with law enforcement and is “just not a correct statement of the law.”
However, Allison Hamilton, executive director of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, was one of four people who spoke against the legislation. She brought up in her remarks the story of Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a construction worker in Baldwin County, who was arrested by ICE officers twice based on the color of his skin, despite the fact that he is a U.S. citizen.
The committee is expected to vote on the bill next week.
A companion bill in the upper chamber was approved by the Senate State Governmental Affairs Committee yesterday. Senate Bill 45 invalidates driver’s licenses issued in states that do not require people to prove their legal status when they receive licenses.
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