Alabama Rubber-Stamps Trump Agenda

By Kirsten J. Barnes

The Alabama Legislature got off to its second week and already they have signed into laws several pieces of legislation that back up President Trump’s agenda.

On Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, Gov. Kay Ivey signed Senate Bill 79, known as the “What is a Woman” bill, sponsored by Republican legislators Sen. April Weaver and Rep. Susan Dubose.

“If the Good Lord made you a boy, you’re a boy. And if He made you a girl, you’re a girl,” said Gov. Kay Ivey. “In Alabama, we believe there are two genders: Male and female. There is nothing complicated or controversial about it. Today, I was proud to officially answer the question “What is a Woman?” with my signature on Senate Bill 79. It did not take a biologist to figure it out.”

Additionally, the Alabama Senate advanced a bill targeting the Latino Community, especially those in Alabama illegally.

If passed by the Alabama House and signed by Ivey Senate Bill 53 would make it illegal to knowingly harbor, shield or conceal an illegal alien to prevent detection; or transport, move, or assist an illegal alien to evade immigration authorities.

The bill also sets requirements related to how municipal and state authorities determine a person’s legal right to be in the state.

If passed jail administrators must determine the immigration status of all arrested individuals within 24 hours of booking, and if an individual is determined to be an illegal alien, the jail must notify federal immigration authorities immediately.

Although the bill passed the Senate, Democrats were able to add an amendment which made the bill more palatable.

Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton added an exception for educators and attorneys, citing that there is no immigration court in Alabama and attorneys sometimes transport their clients to hearings. Additionally, educators or education employees take children on field trips and other school functions and needed to be excluded from prosecution.

“A lot of these bills we deal with have unintended consequences,” Singleton said. “Once we go through them and get them to add our amendments and we make these bills better than they were then I see it as a win.”

In the Alabama Senate Republicans out-number Democrats 27-8.

“We are going to continue to fight,” said Singleton who has been in the Senate since 2005 when the Democrats were in power. “We know we will get out-voted, but if we can get some amendments on, we feel better about the process. This bill is a lot better than it was.”

He noted that some of the Republicans, including farmers, were not 100 percent behind the bill as it was originally written.

“It took compromise on both sides,” Singleton said.

This is not the first time Alabama has cracked down on immigrants and migrant workers in the state.

“In 2011 we saw a lot of detriment to our state. We saw workers leaving and we saw farmers being left with crops in the fields and we’re seeing a lot of that now,” Singleton said.

Many Alabama farmers and construction foremen rely on Latino workers.

“We’re not willing to give people a chance. It seems that we just want to get them out of our state, and I don’t think that is very human. We say that we’re a Christian nation but our neighbors to the South are not being treated like they are human beings,” Singleton said. “As an African American who understands the history of my people who were brought here on slave ships, it’s still kind of sketchy the way that I am treated on a day-to-day basis in terms of being targeted, profiling and being blamed for different stuff. So, it’s hard to sit back and see other races of people go through the same thing.”

Also passed by the Alabama Senate was a bill, SB63, which if passed would require any illegal immigrant in custody to have their fingerprints and DNA cataloged.