House Passes Laken Riley Act

The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to pass the Laken Riley Act, advancing a bill that will expand the detention and deportation of immigrants in the United States, while granting states power over federal immigration policy.  The bill expands mandatory detention for minor infractions and grants extremist AGs unconstitutional power. Already a dangerous piece of legislation, new additions added by the Senate further expanded existing mandatory detention provisions, heightening the devastating impact on immigrant families and communities.

The legislation is expected to be the first bill President Donald Trump signs into law in his second term.

“This bill does nothing to improve safety or fix our broken immigration system. Under the guise of preventing violence, the bill forces immigration officers to indefinitely detain and deport non-citizens who pose no public safety risk, without access to basic due process. The bill also gives state attorneys general unprecedented power over immigration policy. The bill strips people of their basic rights and upends how the U.S. government enforces immigration law,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council.

KJ