Sheriffs assist in Alabama immigration arrests

By Sarah Whites Koditschek and Rebecca Griesbach
AL.com

Law enforcement agents are on track to arrest twice as many immigrants without legal status in Alabama as last year.
An AL.com analysis of federal data shows that Alabama is arresting more immigrants in an effort to meet President Donald Trump’s mass deportation promises. The numbers reflect new ways local law enforcement are partnering with federal agents to make arrests.
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“Under the new administration, there’s just simply been more resources allocated towards the overall immigration program,” said Huey “Hoss” Mack, head of the Alabama Sheriffs Association.
According to data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):,
1,947 immigrants were apprehended in 2025, as of June 26, and
1,823 in 2024.

The Trump administration says it is targeting immigrants without legal status who have criminal records. Most people arrested in Alabama have some kind of criminal charge or conviction, according to federal data. But in recent months, a growing share have been picked up on non-criminal charges both in Alabama and nationwide. Of those detained in Alabama since Trump took office in 2025, 1,095 people have pending criminal charges and 596 are convicted criminals. The majority of people detained are men. 

One reason for the growing numbers of arrests is the expansion of partnerships, called 287G agreements, between local law enforcement and the federal government. Such efforts in Alabama reflect a national trend. In May, Trump set an aggressive goal for detaining more immigrants, with a 3,000 daily arrest quota.

“We want to make one of your deputies, and maybe more of them, mini-immigration officers,” Chris Cannon, an assistant field officer in ICE’s New Orleans office, told officers at a sheriff’s conference in Orange Beach earlier this month. He said that ICE has a small presence in Alabama, with just four offices and 25 employees, and more local officers are needed to help the effort. 
Earlier this week, federal agents raided multiple Alabama businesses in six counties and arrested 40 people thought to be undocumented as a part of an operation tied to an alleged money laundering and human smuggling operation. 

Freddy Rubio, an immigration attorney in Birmingham, thinks the current federal approach will not solve a more systemic issue, employers who hire workers who are not here legally.  “If they wanted to get even bigger numbers, go to north Alabama to the chicken processing plants, and in one day, they could round up more than 1,700 undocumented workers,” he said. 
In 2025, immigrants detained in Alabama were citizens of many countries. Mexican immigrants made up the majority of those arrested, at 853, followed by Guatemalans, but the list of countries of origin is long, including locations like Romania, Venezuela, Jamaica, Laos and India. 
As arrests increase, authorities in Alabama are also removing more people from the country, either through deportations or through exclusion proceedings. Exclusions include undocumented immigrants, parolees, or people who otherwise were not admitted to the country legally. Federal data classifies “deportations” as people who entered the country legally but have since lost status and have been ordered to leave.
So far this year, 1,430 removals, including 352 deportations, have been carried out. Of those, 87 were voluntary departures from Alabama.
Mack said most immigrants without legal status arrested, in his experience, are felony offenders. They may have committed robberies or other nonviolent felonies, or they may have reentered the country after being deported, which is a felony offense. 
“They may not have a ‘criminal history’ as what you would normally think of, but they have an immigration criminal history because, once again, entering the country in and of itself without proper documentation and going through the process is a crime,” he said of people who return after prior deportations.
Rubio questioned the agency’s claim that most immigrants arrested were serious criminals, noting that a traffic violation is technically a crime. 
Immigrants facing deportation in Alabama are less likely than other states to have access to a lawyer. Of Alabama residents in immigration court, only 24% have an attorney, according to a Syracuse University analysis of active cases across the state.
Among those arrested this year, about 30 immigrants were sent to countries other than their country of citizenship, mostly Venezuelans, who were sent to Guatemala or Mexico, according to the federal data. Earlier this year, Trump revoked protected status for Venezuelans, put in place by President Joe Biden in 2023, because of dangerous conditions there.