(Washington)—The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) condemns actions and votes in the US Senate moving the Laken Riley Act towards final passage, a manipulation of a tragedy that unjustly demonizes immigrants. This bill, counter to our constitutional norms, subjects immigrants - including children - to mandatory detention without due process and will disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities already subject to racial profiling and over-policing. The tragic death of Laken Riley is a terrible loss for her family and community, but this bill does not do her, or anyone else, justice.
“This bill will allow for the enormous expansion of mandatory detention and will become a key tool in funneling people into the mass deportations promised by Trump,” said ILRC Policy Attorney & Strategist Nithya Nathan-Pineau. “This bill will give state attorneys general far-reaching authority on immigration policies that are not under their jurisdiction.”
“We are currently witnessing similar intervention in the federal immigration system in Texas under Gov. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star and SB4,” Nathan-Pineau said. “These state schemes are driven by racism and white nationalism and paint immigrants as a danger to the US to create havoc on the immigration system. Members of Congress - both Republican and Democrat - are now providing Trump with even more expansive tools to carry out these tactics nationwide.”
The ILRC calls on all members of the House of Representatives to vote against this bill before it finds its way to Trump’s desk.
Nathan-Pineau condemned other aspects of this bill that are outside of established legal and constitutional norms, including:
- Mandatory immigration detention – detention without access to a bond or bail hearing and with no mechanism for release prior to deportation. This is a harmful retrogressive practice that should be ended, not expanded. Mandatory detention premised merely on an arrest – as it is in this bill – is unprecedented.
- The standing provisions would open the floodgates to state lawsuits against the federal government based on any discretionary decision to release individuals. In recent years, the attorneys general of Texas and Louisiana have repeatedly asked federal courts to find they have “standing” to challenge federal immigration laws on the basis of openly discriminatory claims that their states are being harmed by public expenditures such as education, health care, and criminal legal programs, only when those funds are being spent on immigrants.
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The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is a national nonprofit that works with immigrants, community organizations, legal professionals, and policy makers to build a democratic society that values diversity and the rights of all people. Through community education programs, legal training & technical assistance, and policy development & advocacy, the ILRC works to protect and defend the fundamental rights of immigrant families and communities. Follow us at www.ilrc.org, and on Twitter and Instagram @the_ILRC