Alabama conducts first state-federal checkpoint operations with ICE, detaining over 20 people

In what is reportedly one of the first instances of "checkpoint" operations between the Department of Homeland Security and a state police agency, more than two dozen people were detained within the past several days.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey confirmed to Fox News Digital that she directed the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) and other cabinet agencies to "work closely with ICE to catch criminal illegals."

Ivey praised ALEA's work on a particularly lucrative "bust" in Russellville, which saw at least 20 people detained.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, ALEA confirmed that operation in which agency troopers conducted drivers' license checkpoints in Franklin and Colbert counties, where ICE special agents were present.

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More than one-third of area residents identify as Hispanic, according to census figures, which eclipses the statewide proportion of 6%.

ALEA directed Fox News Digital to ICE for immigration-specific data from its collaboration.

"Driver license checkpoints occur all over the state and are one of the ways we stop criminals in their tracks, and now, we include ICE agents in these efforts," Ivey said.

The Republican, who is term-limited next year, added that criminal illegal immigrants are not welcome in her state, and that every "tool in the toolbox" will be used to keep residents and visitors safe.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who is hoping to shift from Washington to Montgomery and succeed Ivey next year, said he was glad to see ALEA work with ICE in this way.

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"When 77 million Americans voted for President Trump, they sent a clear message: they want mass deportations - and they want them now," Tuberville told Fox News Digital.

The longtime Auburn football icon expressed hope that other states will follow Alabama's lead and adapt such new cooperative strategies with federal law enforcement to crack down on illegal immigrants and maintain public safety.

"[Illegal immigrant] criminals shouldn't be here in the first place," Tuberville said.

Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter also indicated his support for Ivey's and ALEA's work.

Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, lamented that there are too many other states where leaders "fight harder for criminals than [for] law-abiding citizens."

In those places, he said, "politics matter more to [elected officials] than public safety … I expect this state and federal partnership to continue yielding positive results."

Birmingham immigration attorney Brett Pouncey told statewide news outlet AL.com that numerous communities are also working with ICE to set up license-checking "roadblocks" - citing reports from his own clients.

Russellville community organizer Evelyn Servin told the outlet that police should not be working with the feds, and claimed people in her area may be racially profiled and detained.

Throughout the summer, ICE also made two dozen arrests in Baldwin County, home of the famed white-sand "Redneck Riviera" beach towns.

Arrests were made at sites in Loxley - along Interstate 10 north of Orange Beach - and Spanish Fort, which lies on the other end of the George Wallace Tunnel from Mobile.

The operations led one immigration advocate in that region to suggest immigrants write phone numbers on their bodies to be able to contact family in case they are detained by ICE, according to AL.com.

Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for further comment and data.