The Laken Riley Act is heading to President Donald Trump’s desk at the White House to be signed into law, having been approved by the Senate this week. The House voted 263 to 156 to pass the bill, with 46 Democrats voting to pass it. The bill will make it easier to detain and deport those without legal status who are charged with any crime, no matter how minor.
“Each and every person who voted this bill into law should be ashamed,” Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said in a statement shared with Documented.
The bill may not have moved forward in the House or the Senate without backing from Democrats, given that Republicans hold only narrow majorities.
Many immigration services professionals, legal experts, and nonprofits have similarly criticized the passage of the bill. Kelli Stump, of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the Laken Riley Act, “[…] when combined with the president’s myopic and chaotic enforcement policies, fails to offer any substantive policy solutions that would have any positive measurable effect.”
The Laken Riley Act is officially known as H.R. 29, and it mandates ICE detain undocumented immigrants who have been arrested, charged of, convicted with, or have admitted to, nonviolent crimes like theft or shoplifting. Advocates say the legislation would impact DACA recipients and minors, including unaccompanied children, as well as many other immigrants.
The legislation also broadens state attorney generals’ authority to challenge federal immigration policies, which critics have said is likely to cause federal court chaos. The Senate approved an amended version of the legislation earlier this week. It is named after a Georgia student, Laken Riley, whose convicted killer was identified as an undocumented migrant, and is the first piece of legislation passed in the new Congress.
Jose Lopez, Co-Executive Director of Make The Road, New York, says the legislation is “extreme” and “will separate immigrant families, undermine due process, and grant anti-immigrant states the power to shape federal law.”
“To Representatives Gillen, Souzzi, Torres, and Morelle: this vote is a betrayal of the immigrant families you purport to represent,” Lopez added. “Voting for this bill does not mean you have worked with Republicans for ‘common sense’ solutions. It means you’ve helped undermine basic rights and erode the rule of law, and will cause real pain right in your own backyard.”
The passage of the bill follows a tumultuous week in the immigration space, following Trump’s declaration of 11 immigration-related executive orders, and the end of refugee programs including the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and Welcome Corps — a program that empowered everyday Americans to help refugees resettle in U.S.
ICE has said in a memo that full implementation of the bill’s requirements will not be possible without more resources. ICE stated that its initial $3.2 billion cost estimate for the act’s implementation is insufficient.
When asked by the Immigrant Justice Network why he voted for the bill and if he knew the bill called for ICE to be granted $26 billion for its operations, Senator Rubén Gallego (D-AZ) said “No, that wasn’t actually in the bill.” When informed that 110,000 people will be detained because of the bill and if he agrees with mass deportations, Gallego answered negatively: “No, I don’t agree with mass deportations.”
With funding for 41,500 detention beds and over 39,000 detainees as of December, ICE projects needing 110,000 more beds to accommodate those affected by the new legislation, far surpassing current capacity.
Leaked Trump administration documents reveal ICE plans to build four 10,000-bed detention centers and 14 smaller facilities with 700-1,000 beds each. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in light of the passage of the Laken Riley Act, called for a close inspection of the legislation from members of the public. “I want folks at home to look at what members of Congress are invested in private prisons companies, and look at the votes on this bill,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It is atrocious that people are lining their pockets with private prison profits in the name of a horrific tragedy.”
