Key Republican senators say they are compiling a list of changes that need to be made to Alabama's new immigration law, described as the nation's toughest.

Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, who on Tuesday replaced immigration bill sponsor Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, as chairman of the powerful Senate Rules Committee, said there is wide agreement the bill had several "unintended consequences" that need to be addressed.

"We are looking at different fixes," he said.

More blunt was Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, who is one of the senators helping craft a package of amendments.

"It's just common sense. Let's step up and say we've made some mistakes," Dial said. "It doesn't weaken the bill."

Dial said the bill's requiring proof of legal residence or citizenship for every transaction with a state or local government, including all license renewals, is too cumbersome.

The bill's requirement that potentially criminalizes giving charitable aid to illegal immigrants goes too far, he said.

And though he expects opposition, Dial said he would push to remove the requirement that educators verify the immigration status of students in schools. "I think that was one of the worst things that was put in the bill," said Dial, who once worked as a teacher and a coach. "That may be a point of contention but I am for taking that out. Teachers and educators have enough to contend with today."

Dial said he doesn't believe the immigration law, approved in the waning days of the legislative session in June, would have passed if senators had had more time to fully understand its ramifications.

The bulk of the new law is in effect despite a federal court challenge to it brought by the U.S. Justice Department, church groups and state and national civil liberties groups.

The law has caused long lines at courthouses around the state, since it adds a step, a verification of legal residence, to every transaction with a state or local government entity. While legal residence can be proved with a driver's license, government officials have to verify authenticity of the driver's license.

The law also has led to complaints of a shortage of skilled workers in the trades and in agriculture, as even some Hispanics here legally have chosen to leave the state.

The latest "unintended consequence" to appear is that the law apparently requires that every professional licensing board in the state -- from those covering cosmetologists to doctors, air conditioning repair workers to attorneys, interpreters, psychologists and auctioneers -- to verify the resident status of all their licensees, both at the time of initial application and at the time of renewal.

Larry Dixon, the executive director of the Alabama State Board of Medical Examiners, said the board is working to comply with the law, but it will create a great deal of additional work. It may also hamper the board's ability to renew licenses online, which now accounts for 75 percent to 80 percent of renewals, because it doesn't currently have a way to verify documents electronically.

Dixon, a former senator, is confident his former colleagues will make fixes. These kinds of difficulties tend to surface every time a complex set of legislation passes. "Everybody seems to understand that there have been some unintended difficulties that need to be addressed," Dixon said. "Nobody intended to create problems for American citizens."

Waggoner said the professional license renewal quandary is one that bears looking at. "This would be a very cumbersome requirement," he said. "I think that is one of the unintended consequences. We are looking at some changes and that will need to be one of them."

Waggoner has said he has heard from a myriad of businesses that are having difficulty finding skilled workers. The aim of the bill -- to put Alabamians to work in positions that had been occupied by undocumented workers -- was laudable, but not practical in all instances.

"People that are in the masonry business, you can't just hire an unemployed person and tell him to go lay bricks," Waggoner said.

Dial said there is no reason to refuse any changes for the sake of pride.

"I made some mistakes in voting for the bill as it was, and I'm big enough to admit it," he said.

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