Laken Riley Act

Right now, the Attorney General of Alabama can make a written agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about: 

• How to make national immigration laws happen

  • Immigration: moving from one country to another.

• Putting undocumented people in jail

  • Undocumented people: people who don’t have paperwork saying they have permission to be in the United States

• Making people who have moved to Alabama from other countries to leave the country

• Police officers asking or assuming whether or not immigrants living in Alabama have the right paperwork

• Attorney General: The state’s top lawyer and the person in charge of making sure people follow the laws.

• U.S Department of Homeland Security: A big office in the national government that deals with anything that could be a threat to the United States.

• If this bill passes:

  • State and local police can:

    • Make agreements with offices in the national government about how to follow rules about immigrants who don’t have permission to be in the United States 

    • Put in jail, kick out, and look into people who don’t have official permission to be in the United States, 

    • Check if people in  Alabama have permission to be in the United States

  • People who work for the State and local government have to share, take in, and keep information about people's permission to be in the United States when that information is needed to keep others in Alabama safe.  

  • Police will be able to move people in Alabama who don’t have permission to be in the United States national jails.  

  • Police officers can arrest people who can’t prove they have permission to be in the United States even if they haven’t broken any other rules.

  • County and city jails have to follow orders from the Department of Homeland Security in certain cases.

    • County: A large area in a state.

  • Jails have to share information on people they hold who are from other countries every three.   

• This bill suggests rules for across the state for taking in and putting undocumented people and people from other countries in county and city jails.