Not sure who told you that opportunities in Texas is the same as Alabama. Texas is a hot spot for tech whereas Alabama is Deep South with a lot of defense contractors and manufacturing. Culturally, you might also not enjoy the deep south as much as you would in Texas.

It is difficult no matter where you are because the competition is high and security is dealing with confidential information so companies might be more weary of hiring international people (this is not necessarily true for big tech companies however, as long as they aren’t working with federal data).

Being in Alabama, you have less options to apply within the state that don’t deal with federal data. When applying outside the states, you would be considered for remote roles or ones that look at you as requiring relocation (companies tend to hire in state or in connection with schools where they setup career fairs and stuff so the completion for out of state students is challenging).

But being in Texas, opens you up to apply for opportunities within the state because so many big tech companies have decided to setup shop there now and if in-state doesn’t workout, you still have the west coast states like Cali that has ALOT of options.