Alabama Immigrants

A new Alabama law known as SB63 goes into effect on June first. It’s a mandatory DNA and fingerprint collection law for undocumented non-citizens. The Alabama Immigrant Advocacy Coalition says it invites racial profiling.

Alireza Doroudi has been detained in an immigration facility in Louisiana for nearly six weeks. Doroudi's detention has instilled fear in the small Iranian community in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he and his fiancee are doctoral students. Doroudi's visa was revoked in 2023, but he wasn't given a reason. His fiancee says he was told that he was legally allowed to stay in the U.S. as long as he remained a student. Now, one Iranian doctoral student says the fear in her community "feels like we're returning back to Iran again."

Drivers licenses from out of state may be rendered invalid in Alabama, if they’re held by illegal immigrants. In addition to Wyoming and Tennessee, at least a half-dozen other Republican-led states have considered legislation this year to invalidate certain types of out-of-state driver's licenses issued to immigrants illegally in the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen has declared illegal a revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. But the judge declined to order an immediate end to the program and the protections it offers to recipients. Alabama is among the States suing over the issue.

President Joe Biden signed a proclamation earlier this year designating June as Immigrant Heritage Month. Data from the Migrant Policy Institute says the number of foreign-born people living in Alabama has doubled over the last twenty years. These people have stories of what they left and what they’re experiencing here in the U.S.

“Here We May Rest: Alabama Immigrants in the Age of HB 56”Author: Silvia Giagnoni Publisher: NewSouth BooksPages: 276Price: $29.95 (Trade paper)Silvia…