Steve Marshall addresses Central Alabama Associated General Contractors

May 28, 2025 – MONTGOMERY, AL – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) addressed the Central Section group of the Alabama Associated General Contractors at their regular meeting at the Montgomery Country Club on Wednesday.

AG Marshall told the contractors that his office, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), and the Montgomery Sheriff's Department all stepped up to help stamp out crime in the troubled City of Montgomery.

"We had crime problems here in Montgomery, very serious crime problems," Marshall said. "I, as the Attorney General, am not normal day to day on the ground law enforcement like Sheriffs or police chiefs; but Montgomery is our state capital. People were contacting our office saying they need help. Gunshots were becoming far too frequent. Montgomery Sherrif Derrick Cunningham is not responsible for the day-to-day policing of Montgomery. Hal Taylor, the director of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency; but we all came to the Montgomery Police Chief and said We want to help. Investigators from our team wanted to be part of the solution."

"Old fashioned law enforcement works," said Marshall of the crime suppression unit. "We didn't have any push back at all."

Marshall said that the efforts of the Montgomery Crime Suppression unit resulted in 434 individual arrest, numerous arrest warrants served – some of these people were wanted for murder, "75 different types of drugs seized – this is due to the synthetics," "65 felon guns seized," 96 vehicle pursuits, and $90,000 in drugs seized.

"Any way you look at it this has been a tremendous success," said Marshall. "We were able to get our federal partners involved.'

"This took bad guys off the streets, but the numbers don't always tell the story," said Marshall. "A woman brought cookies to my office. She said I just want to say thank you for what you are doing; because for the first time in a long time I can sit on my front porch and feel ok."

Marshall said that the crime in the capital city affects the entire region and state; because of economic recruitment efforts to bring projects to the area.

"We want to be able to attract people to work here and feel safe to live in this community," said Marshall. "I want to be able to hire the best attorneys and they need to be able to live and work here."

Marshall said that the effort has been so successful that Birmingham, Mobile, and Huntsville are considering similar strategies.

"In the last legislative session, the Speaker (of the Alabama House of Representatives) put money in the budget to do the same thing in Birmingham," Mashall said.

Marshall visited the U.S. southern border in Arizona last week.

"Last week I went to Arizona," said Marshall. "I was really struck with the change," from the Biden administration. "They had three million encounters on the border in a one year period -that is 16,000 a day. There were nearly 464,000 pounds of fentanyl seized on the border. Since President Trump took over border crossings dropped by 95 percent. Got aways are down by about 95 percent."

"When you unleash law enforcement to do their job with sufficient numbers to do it good things happen," said Marshall.

Marshall said that the morale of the border patrol is up as a result of changes in policy. The cartels had trained the migrants to say that they were in fear for their lives in their home country.

"They (border patrol) were not allowed to question them," said Marshall. "That statement alone got you into the country. Now they get questioned."

Marshall said that fentanyl trafficking across the border is down 54 percent and across the border in Sinaloa, "They have already arrested 6,000 drug traffickers."

"I did not know this but the majority of our winter vegetables come from Yuma County (AZ)," said Marshall. The border crossers "were just camping out in those fields."

That resulted in those vegetables in that field being taken off the market; because of the high likelihood that they were contaminated with human feces.

"There has been a dramatic increase in what they were able to sell," this year without all the illegal border crossers.

"What was most sad was how many children were abandoned there," said Marshall. "The hospital had $28 million in unrecouped costs (from treating the illegals). Last month they had four.

"The border wall materials were still sitting there," from the first Trump administration.

Marshall was optimistic that Trump will now build the wall.

"It was a very impactful trip for me able to go down there," added Marshall.

Marshall said that the General Contractors Association has been helping his with his fight against the Biden era COVID-19 mandates.

"We were able to be successful," said Marshall. "Twelve (federal) contractors were able to sue. Though the awards thus far has been very limited it has given us a little hope."

"We did see President Trump issue an EO that there is no federal minimum wage on (federal) projects," said Marshall. "I think that was $15 (an hour) during the Biden administration."

"The next target of environmentalists was concrete," said Marshall. "That would have cost all of you money. We were able to pushback on that."

Marshall said that he fought the Biden Administration's policies on transportation. "We were successful there."

Marshall said that his office fought against extreme policies like declaring land, "Critical habitat where the endangered species doesn't live."

Marshall said that growing up in Marshall County he never could have believed that there would be a debate over the definition of a boy and a girl.

"We spent four years discussing what those terms actually mean," said Marshall. "We have all heard sad stories about what happened with girls in athletics."

Marshall said that his office has defended girls sports.

"OCEA was about to pass a rule where if you didn't provide the bathroom of their choice or use the pronouns of their choice you could be sued by plaintiffs layers," added Marshall. "That is one where we were also successful."

The Biden administration attempted to rewrite Title IX regulations to allow cross dressing males in women's sports, locker rooms, and bathrooms.

"The Title IX reg would have opened up bathrooms and locker rooms," said Marshall.

"We were losing those cases," said Marshall until the state questioned how the 'science' was produced not by the scientific method but by activists strongarming scientists to publish LGBTQ+ propaganda on the supposed benefits of transgender treatments.

"We led the charge on that," said Marshall. "I saw a video of a gender reveal party for a four year old."

Marshall said that Congress needs to start passing laws codifying the executive orders passed by President Donald J. Trump (R). Marshall called for action by Congress.

Marshall is a native of Atmore. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law. After college he worked as a prosecutor. Eventually he was appointed district attorney in Marshall County. He was appointed Attorney General by Governor Robert Bentley (R) on February 10, 2017.

All eyes in the state are focused on AG Marshall after U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) announced that he will be running for Governor of the state next year rather than seeking re-election to his Senate seat. Marshall has served two terms at Alabama Attorney General and is term limited from seeking a third consecutive term.

Sources claim that Marshall could declare for the Senate as early as Thursday.

He told reporters during a brief media availability before the event that he is still making up his mind on whether or not to run for Senate.

Former Navy candidate Jared Hudson is the first Republican candidate to declare for the Senate. Congressman Barry Moore (R-AL01) is reportedly considering a run for U.S. Senate.

The Republican primary is May 19, 2025.