By AV Press Releases | Editorial credit: Joe Benning / shutterstock.com

Washington, DC — Lawmakers, media observers, and outside experts are criticizing the dangerous and sweeping nature of the Laken Riley Act as well as the misguided political assessments undergirding some of its support. Among the key voices include:

• Senator Chris Murphy: “I don’t think we want the entire immigration system being litigated in district courts all across the country.”
• Rep. Jim McGovern (Read an entire thread from Rep. McGovern here): “This is a trojan horse bill that exploits Laken Riley’s tragic murder in order to dramatically expand the government’s power to shut down LEGAL immigration & detain people who are not convicted of any crime at all.”
• Rep. Sean Casten: (Read an entire thread from Rep. Casten here) “undocumented people in the US who are convicted of felonies are already subject to deportation.  If that is your concern you should be happy with existing law.  As I am.”
• Rep. Chellie Pingree: “The Laken Riley Act creates a two-tiered justice system that violates constitutional principles of equal protection. The bill would require mandatory detention for undocumented individuals arrested or charged with theft or burglary offenses, even before any conviction. This contradicts our fundamental presumption of innocence and due process rights that protect all persons within U.S. jurisdiction.”  
• Tahiri Justice Center: “H.R. 29 strengthens the hand of abusers. One call to law enforcement; one accusation of a crime someone didn’t commit, or was forced to commit under threat, and a victim of abuse could be separated from the people she loves — for a lifetime.”

• Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: “What does any of this have to do with the wrenching loss of Laken Riley, or really any problem in our dysfunctional immigration system? It doesn’t. It just creates more problems — humanitarian, economic and constitutional. Democratic lawmakers (and any fair-minded Republicans still out there) should learn what they’re voting for before they get manipulated into doing so.”
• Mark Joseph Stern in Slate: “[U]nder the guise of punishing a small number of lawbreaking undocumented immigrants, the act would curtail legal immigration and subject law-abiding immigrants to detention and deportation. It is baffling that so many Democrats would sign on to such a cruel and constitutionally dubious scheme.”
• Alicia Menendez and Lynox Norman of MSNBC: “There is no doubt that Americans are eager to see changes to our immigration system. But if Democrats believe their constituents are so eager to see those changes that they are willing to trample on the principles of due process and impair the executive branch’s ability to make immigration policy moving forward, then they are complicit in making the necessary reforms even harder to achieve.”

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The Laken Riley Act Would Give States Sweeping Power Over Immigration Policy

• Eric Levitz of New York Magazine: “I think the Laken Riley Act is very dangerous. We should not be rolling back basic due process rights for longtime U.S. residents, or empowering Republican attorney generals to bar legal Indian and Chinese immigrants from the country.”
• Greg Sargent of The New Republic: “[S]ome Democrats, spooked by Trump’s comeback, have already decided there’s no percentage in even attempting to challenge anything carrying the aura of ‘toughness’ on immigration. That doesn’t bode well for their capacity to resist the terrible crackdown that’s coming, but fortunately, it’s not too late to find a better path.”
• Elvia Díaz of the Arizona Republic, “Selling the legislation as merely deporting criminals is politically convenient. Americans will eat that up in one gulp. After all, who can possibly defend criminals? But don’t be fooled by soundbites … It’s a power grab by states to dismantle federal authority over immigration enforcement.”
• Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council in a MSNBC opinion column, “Giving a state attorney general veto power over everything from visa bans to individual release decisions made by ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers, threatens to make the entire immigration system even more chaotic than it already is.”
• Service Employees International Union (SEIU), “Despite loud and endless fear-mongering by some, there is no immigrant crime wave, and in fact immigrants are less likely than others to commit crimes. If further proof is needed, crime has plummeted in recent years at the same time as immigration has increased, the opposite of what would have happened if immigrants posed a danger … In addition to the foregoing, Section 3 of H.R. 29 would make extremely radical changes in the balance of power over immigration policy that are only tangentially related to crime. It would empower each of the more than 50 state attorneys general to sue in federal district court to overrule individual and policy decisions made by the executive branch.”

Additional Resources 

• Read the new America’s Voice blog post, “The Bankrupt Politics and Policy of the Ken Paxton Empowerment Act (AKA the Laken Riley Act  H.R.29/S.5)”

• Read from the National Immigration Law Center, “NILC: 5 Things to Know About the  Laken Riley Act”

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