Fired up over ICE

Residents turned out in force at last week's City Council meeting to speak against any potential agreement between Huntsville and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Why it matters: As the Trump administration escalates immigration enforcement efforts, impacts are rippling across communities including Huntsville.

Driving the news: Speakers at the meeting relayed experiences of local immigrants taken by ICE and the trauma left in its wake, and stressed the positive contributions of immigrants in the community.

• Indivisible - 5th District North Alabama, a grassroots activist group, presented a resolution to the Council and held a rally at City Hall ahead of Thursday's meeting.
• Non-agenda related public comments lasted more than 80 minutes as people continued to denounce any potential agreement.

Catch up quick: Huntsville does not currently have an agreement with ICE, said City Administrator John Hamilton, but they are operating in the city.

What they're saying: "There's certainly not anything that you or HPD or the mayor or myself or anybody else can do to stop ICE or any other federal agency from doing operations they've been directed to do by their leadership," Hamilton said.

• If an undocumented individual is arrested, ICE will be notified by the Madison County Sheriff's Office as that person is booked into the county-operated jail, he added.

Zoom in: The resolution, provided to Axios, seeks a commitment from the city to not enter an agreement that would grant immigration enforcement authority to local officers.

• It also calls for training programs on community policing.

Go deeper: Without immigration, U.S. population could start to decline as soon as 2031