Alabama lawmakers are responding to reports that large charter buses are dropping off what appears to be Haitian immigrants at several locations in Marshall County.
Social media posts from residents in the area show pictures of the busses. According to the Albertville Police Department (APD) initially, the busses were meant to transport employees of Wayne Farms, which is a local chicken processing plant in Albertville. However, it’s now understood that the busses were transporting workers for Pilgrims, another processing plant, located in Franklin County. Pilgrims released a statement elaborating on what the public was seeing:
“A few months ago, our Russellville, Ala., facility had an expansion that resulted in increased job opportunities at the plant. Our neighboring facility that experiences low turnover has had an applicant waitlist for quite some time. Because of this, we hired many of those individuals and provide transportation to and from the Russellville plant for our team members who live in the surrounding areas, something we have been doing for months. At Pilgrim’s, we have best-in-class workforce eligibility, safety and compliance standards.”
“We’ve been notified about charter buses dropping off and picking people up throughout town,” Albertville Police Department said in a statement. “We have contacted the bus company in question, and they advised us that they have been contracted by a local company to transport workers to and from work.”
State Sen. Wes Kitchens (R-Arab) responded to questions about the incident on social media Friday.
“As a response to the many calls from concerned constituents in my district, I would like to provide an update about the Marshall County immigration issue,” Kitchens said. “I have reached out to the poultry processing companies and have been assured the charter busses will no longer be running. I have been in contact with our federal delegation relaying concerns and have requested they join local officials for a meeting in Marshall County. Since this issue is not new to Marshall County, Sheriff Sims and I had previously arranged a meeting with Texas Board Patrol which will occur in the coming weeks to continue discussions on improving this crisis from the local and state level.”
As a response to the many calls from concerned constituents in my district, I would like to provide an update about the Marshall County immigration issue. I have reached out to the poultry processing companies and have been assured the charter busses will no longer be running.
— Wes Kitchens (@wes_kitchens) August 9, 2024
Sen. Kitchens also posted a letter he sent to the Biden-Harris administration, calling on them to fix the border crisis.
Due to the policies of the Biden-Harris Administration every state and community has become a border town.
I remain committed to use every available resource including sending this letter to President Joe Biden urging policy changes to keep the citizens of Senate District 9 safe pic.twitter.com/5flxYvWepx— Wes Kitchens (@wes_kitchens) August 9, 2024
State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) also responded to the concerns Friday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.”
“They don’t tell us what they’re going to do,” Orr said about the federal immigration authorities. “And they certainly wouldn’t want to, because they know there would be a lot of local pushback on dumping people in the community who have no resources and maybe a suitcase and that’s it and they expect the local community to pick up the slack and that’s what we see.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
