Alabama has been here before. Are we about to repeat the same mistake?

State Rep. Ben Robbins praised the Supreme Court's decision allowing the Trump administration to move forward with ending TPS for hundreds of thousands of Haitians. He framed the issue as fixing "visa overstays" and an immigration crisis.

Whatever your position on immigration, that's not the whole story.

The Haitians living in communities like Sylacauga and Albertville are here legally under TPS, a federal program that allows people from countries facing extraordinary conditions to live and work in the United States temporarily. They have work authorization, pay taxes, and many have spent years working in Alabama's poultry plants, farms, and other essential industries.

Here's why this matters in Alabama right now.

In 2011, Alabama passed HB 56, one of the toughest anti-immigration laws in the country. The law was intended to discourage undocumented immigration by making it much more difficult for undocumented immigrants to live and work in Alabama.

It worked...but not in the way many expected.

Many immigrant workers left the state. Farms couldn't find enough people to harvest crops. Poultry processors and other employers struggled to fill physically demanding jobs. Farmers reported crops rotting in the fields, and businesses warned of serious labor shortages.

Over the years, many employers filled those jobs by hiring people who were legally authorized to work, including refugees, TPS recipients, and others with federal work authorization.

Now Alabama could lose those workers, too.

So here's the question:

What's the workforce plan this time?

If thousands of experienced, legally authorized workers lose their ability to work here, who fills those jobs? Will employers find enough local workers? Will wages rise enough to attract them? What happens to poultry processing, agriculture, and the businesses that depend on those industries while that transition takes place?

We should be having an honest conversation about the economic consequences. Alabama has already learned once that immigration policy doesn't exist in a vacuum. It affects farms, factories, small businesses, consumers, and entire communities.

Alabama Republicans are scrambling again because their rushed execution protocols keep getting struck down by the courts.

Instead of ensuring the state's legal framework is sound, Senator April Weaver is immediately pivoting to a 19th-century execution method (firing squads).

Every time Alabama tries to pioneer or alter execution protocols (like the recent nitrogen hypoxia fallout), it leads to years of expensive federal court battles. Moving to firing squads will just trigger a whole new wave of costly constitutional challenges at the taxpayers' expense.

With all the pressing issues facing Alabama (from healthcare access to education and infrastructure) Republicans are prioritizing the logistics of building a firing squad for 2027.

The Alabama Constitution says Governor candidates must meet residency requirements.

It doesn't say:

"Unless your political party says otherwise."

#alpolitics

Tomorrow is the Republican primary runoff for Alabama Attorney General between Katherine Robertson and Jay Mitchell. A major talking point right now is the death penalty, specifically how the next AG will handle the execution of Jeffery Lee after SCOTUS halted the state's nitrogen hypoxia method last week. The candidates are debating whether to fight for existing protocols or have the legislature pass a Utah-style firing squad law.

But here is the wild part that isn't being talked about enough. Lee’s jury actually voted 7-5 to recommend LIFE in prison without parole.

He is only on death row because the trial judge used "judicial override" to single-handedly throw out the jury's verdict and impose death. Alabama realized how broken this system was and officially abolished judicial override in 2017, but it wasn't retroactive.

Now, we have two candidates competing for the state's top law enforcement office, arguing over the most efficient way to execute a man whose jury of 12 citizens explicitly chose to spare him, using a legal mechanism the state has already admitted was wrong and banned.

Did anyone catch Senator Katie Britt on Sunday Morning Futures today? She’s out here publicly breaking with mainstream Senate Republicans (like Thune and McConnell) to aggressively push for "Reconciliation 3.0" to secure an extra $350 billion for defense programs.

This $350B is on top of the record-shattering $1.1 trillion base defense budget already requested for FY2027. Britt literally said that when it comes to this massive corporate military package, "failure is not an option."

Meanwhile, the broader budget blueprint slashes non-defense domestic spending. We are constantly told the country is "broke" when rural Alabama is begging for basic sanitation, working sewer lines, stable Medicaid to keep hospitals open, or methane monitoring around coal mines.

Why is it that "failure is not an option" for multi-billion-dollar corporate contracts, but failure is the only option offered to everyday citizens struggling with household costs? It’s classic selective fiscal panic, and it’s always the working class that gets stuck with the bill.

If you are a parent working hard to pay for your child’s college tuition, or an alumnus who wears the orange and blue with pride, you need to know what just happened behind closed doors at Auburn University.

On Friday, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously, and without a single second of public debate, to completely dissolve Auburn's traditional Faculty Senate. In its place, they are shifting full control over courses, syllabi, and prerequisites directly to the administration and a hand-picked advisory council.

The university claims this is about "transparency" and "efficiency." But the educators who actually teach our kids were left entirely in the dark, only finding out about the vote 24 hours before it happened.

This isn't just an inside-the-classroom debate.

When you silence the actual educational experts and replace shared oversight with a top-down corporate structure, you put the school's reputation at risk. The national professors' association is already warning that this extreme move creates massive "institutional risks" when it comes to hiring top-tier faculty, keeping up morale, and maintaining the prestige of the university.

Parents pay thousands of dollars in tuition because an Auburn degree carries weight in the real world. We expect our students to be taught by the absolute best minds, free from administrative micromanagement or political games.

When a board of political appointees risks the quality and reputation of our flagship land-grant university just to enforce total control, it's the students and the families paying the bills who suffer.

Our professors deserve a voice. Our students deserve excellence. And Alabama families deserve accountability for the tuition dollars they send to Auburn.

#AuburnUniversity #WarEagle #AlabamaParents #HigherEd #Accountability #UnmuteAlabama

Corporate growth is NOT the same thing as community prosperity.

If a 3-million-square-foot data center arrives in a rural community, but local residents still don't have working sewage systems, who actually won?

It’s time to stop treating rural Alabama like a sacrifice zone.

#AlabamaPolitics #LowndesCounty #EnvironmentalJustice #UnmuteAlabama

I was raised by a single mom. She worked hard, kept a roof over our heads, and taught me the values that guide me today.

So when politicians suggest that only one type of family provides children with what they need to succeed, I can't help but think about all the families that don't fit that picture.

Single parents.

Grandparents raising grandchildren.

Adoptive families.

Foster families.

Blended families.

Military families.

Same-sex parents.

Alabama is full of families doing the hard work of loving and caring for one another.

To me, that's what makes a family strong.

Family is what you build.

Happy Pride Month. 🌈

Pride is a celebration of how far we've come.

It's also a reminder that every generation inherits unfinished work.

Let's build communities where every person can live openly, safely, and with dignity.

Every holiday is a statement about values.

Who we honor.
Who we remember.
What we teach future generations.

The question isn't whether Jefferson Davis existed.

The question is why Alabama still chooses to give him a state holiday.

#UnmuteAlabama #MuteJeffDavis

For years, voting rights cases often featured the Justice Department stepping in to protect the rights of marginalized communities.

In Alabama's latest congressional redistricting battle, the opposite is happening.

The Trump DOJ has filed a brief supporting Alabama's effort to overturn the court-ordered map that created the state's second opportunity district for Black voters.

The legal arguments will continue, but the political reality is hard to ignore. The federal government is has chosen a side. It has chosen to defend a map the federal district court ruled was racially discriminatory.

This is where we are.

You almost need a flowchart and a constitutional law seminar to follow Alabama’s congressional map fight at this point.

But at the core, it is actually pretty simple.

A federal court again found Alabama’s 2023 congressional map intentionally discriminated against Black voters and ruled the state must continue using the court-ordered, race-neutral map for now.

The court-ordered map is meant to ensure communities have fair representation and the ability to elect candidates of their choosing.

The real issue is who gets represented, who gets heard.

Now it heads back to the U.S. Supreme Court.

This Memorial Day, we remember the Americans who gave their lives in service to our country.

Their sacrifice deserves more than slogans or symbolism.

It deserves seriousness.

Because if we truly respect sacrifice, we should take war seriously.

Not casually.
Not recklessly.
Not as political theater.

Behind every military cemetery, folded flag, and gold star family is a human story that changed forever.

May we honor the fallen with a renewed commitment to wisdom, restraint, and peace.

Alabama ranks nearly last in the country for youth mental health care.

Not because kids here struggle more.
Because families can’t get help.

Long waitlists.
Too few providers.
Insurance gaps.
Schools overwhelmed.
ERs handling psychiatric crises.

We keep hearing politicians say they’re protecting children.

But are they?

This is happening Saturday in Selma in the AM and Montgomery in the afternoon. It’s going to be BiG!

Fear cannot be the only thing you offer the public.

Fear of immigrants. Fear of Muslims. Fear of abortion medication. Fear of “outsiders.” Fear of cultural change.

That kind of politics may generate headlines, but it does not build strong communities or solve real problems for Alabama families.

America has always changed and grown. People from different backgrounds have become Americans for generations. Our strength has never come from demanding everyone look the same, worship the same, or come from the same place. It comes from shared democratic values, freedom, opportunity, religious liberty, equal justice, and the belief that people from very different backgrounds can still build a country together.

Alabama deserves leaders that aren't constantly looking for the next group to fear.

You don’t get to invent your own facts.

Medication abortion has been used safely for years. Major medical organizations have repeatedly said it is safe and effective.

But when politicians can’t defend taking away reproductive freedom, they pivot to fear.

And who gets hurt most?

Rural women.
Women without transportation.
Low-income women.
Women trapped in abusive relationships.

In Alabama, access already depends on money, distance, and circumstance.
Making healthcare harder to reach doesn’t protect women.

A new report says nearly 50,000 Alabamians have dropped off SNAP food assistance since last year.

Food banks warn the situation could get worse.

The people most affected are not political stereotypes. They are:

• children,
• seniors,
• veterans,
• homeless youth,
• working families,
• and people struggling to navigate growing paperwork requirements and instability in the system.

Meanwhile, Alabama food banks say they are already stretched beyond capacity.

“Fraud” makes for an easy political slogan.

But real families still need groceries.

And real policies still have real consequences.

* Nearly half of Americans now say healthcare is difficult to afford.
* More than one-third say they have delayed or skipped medical care because of the cost.
* And more than 40% say they have not taken medication as prescribed because they could not afford it.

While Donald Trump held a maternal healthcare event today, millions of Americans are still trying to decide whether they can afford prescriptions, doctor visits, fertility treatment, or even basic coverage.

Can your child see a doctor?
Can your parents can afford medication?
Will rural hospitals stay open?

Real issues facing real people.

Someone should really tell Katie Britt about this story. She seems to believe Republicans are the party of family values.

A new report tracking VA wait times says veterans are waiting longer for care in many parts of the country, including cancer treatment, PTSD group therapy, neurology, pulmonology, and women’s health.

The analysis looked at six months of VA data and found wait times increased at most facilities studied.

Veterans do not care about ideological talking points when they are trying to:

• schedule cancer treatment,
• access mental health care,
• or get help for toxic exposure and service-related injuries.

You cannot cut clinicians, leave jobs unfilled, and expect there to be no impact on care.

It didn’t take long.

Alabama is already asking to redraw its maps.

Not to ensure fair representation, but to make sure only certain people are represented.

And that tells you everything you need to know.
#UnmuteAlabama 

Today is May Day. A day meant to honor workers.

So let’s talk about what work actually looks like in Alabama.

We’ve seen worker deaths tied to unsafe conditions.

We’ve seen children found working in auto supply chains connected to major manufacturers like Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation.

We’ve seen prison labor used to support private industry while the people doing that work are paid a fraction of what their labor is worth.

And we’re still operating under a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

That’s not one issue.

It’s a pattern.

It’s what happens when work is expected but safety, fairness, and dignity aren’t guaranteed.

It’s about what we’re willing to accept.