Federal immigration authorities arrested more than 180 illegal immigrants during a five-day enforcement operation in northwestern Alabama, including an 18th Street gang member who had been deported seven times, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The operation, conducted during the week of Oct. 19, was led by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations office in New Orleans with assistance from local law enforcement agencies in Franklin, Lawrence, Colbert and Marshall counties.
Those arrested included individuals with convictions or previous arrests involving domestic violence, rape, driving under the influence, assault on a law enforcement officer and other offenses, according to ICE.
"ERO New Orleans is committed to protecting our communities by identifying and apprehending illegal aliens who pose public safety concerns and enforcing our nation's immigration laws," acting Field Office Director Scott Ladwig said.
The Alabama Department of Corrections signed an agreement in July with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to assist the federal agency to identify and process immigrants with pending or active criminal charges.
According to an ICE spreadsheet updated last week on law enforcement agencies that have signed onto a local immigration enforcement program known as the 287(g) program, ADOC and ICE signed a memorandum of understanding on July 22. The agreement was not immediately available on the website; the Alabama Reflector requested a copy of the contract from ICE and ADOC on Monday and sent messages seeking comment.
The Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, which advocates for immigrants in the state, said in a statement Monday that that communities need more support and not fear, and called on Corrections to end its agreement with ICE, which it wants abolished.
“We condemn the continuous cooperation between these and other agencies who are assisting in this mass deportation agenda,” the statement said. “Alabama has a history of using law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies to take beloved Alabamians from their homes and their communities.”
The ICE website lists ADOC as part of a Jail Enforcement Model that permits “designated immigration officers to identify and process removable aliens who have pending or active criminal charges.”
ADOC has struggled for years with violence and overcrowding in state prisons, and faces multiple lawsuits over safety and inadequate services in Alabama’s correctional facilities. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state in 2020 after releasing three reports detailing physical and sexual assaults throughout men’s prisons in the state.
Alabama’s immigrant detention facilities held nearly 140 immigrants in federal custody between January 2025 and January 2026, according to the most recently available U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.
In Alabama, 76% of detainees had no criminal convictions and were classified as “no ICE threat level” by the agency.
Meanwhile, 10 people at Alabama facilities were classified as a “level one threat,” nine people were “level two” and 13 people were “level three,” which is the highest severity.
Alabama started using a new detention facility in Baldwin County last year, causing the state’s detention numbers to jump 62%.
Other ICE detention centers in Alabama are located in Gadsden at the Etowah County Jail and Carrollton at the Pickens County Detention Center.
