New bill would force detained illegal immigrants to provide DNA, fingerprints for nationwide crime enforcement

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A new bill proposed in the Alabama state legislature would require illegal immigrants detained by law enforcement in the state to provide a DNA sample and fingerprints for cataloging in order to prevent criminals from being released to commit more crimes under a different identity.

Speaking with Fox News Digital one day after SB 320 passed the Alabama Senate's Judiciary Committee, Republican state Sen. Lance Bell, the bill's primary sponsor, said a trip to see the crisis at the southern border and hearing about illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. multiple times while using a different name on each occasion inspired him to write the legislation.

He added that his inspiration was compounded when a local district attorney told him of an instance in which an illegal immigrant was convicted of murder in Alabama under one name, but was wanted in California for a separate murder under a different name.

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Bell explained that requiring the cataloging of DNA and fingerprints in the national database would help to identify repeat offenders trying to cross the border and catch those wanted for committing crimes regardless of which state they were apprehended in and what name they were going by.

"It gets them cataloged, it gets them identified. We're finding out that most people who are coming over like this are getting deported, and are coming over multiple times," Bell said. 

"Who knows, once we do this I think we'll uncover different crimes that have occurred by matching DNA. At least we can start trying to identify who some of these people really are that are coming into our country," he added.

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Exterior view of the Alabama State Capitol on March 22, 2020 in Montgomery, Alabama. (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

Bell told Fox News he was expecting the bill to come to the full state Senate for a vote this week.

The bill comes just weeks following the expiration of Title 42, a COVID-era policy instated by the Trump administration, which led to thousands of migrants converging on the border.

"When we hear that we're all border states now, that is 100% accurate," Bell said. "These illegals are not staying along the border. They're leaving and they're coming to our communities and coming to our neighborhoods, and the bulk of them are here for no good."

A group of asylum seekers from Mexico, Cuba and Haiti are detained by U.S. Border Patrol in San Luis, Arizona, U.S., April 19, 2021. (Reuters/Jim Urquhart/File Photo)

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"The one's that cross through and do the legal process, I'm not worried about them. It's the illegals that are coming across and that are taking advantage," he added.