The U.S. Senate this week is moving to pass a bill that immigration attorneys and experts warn could have far-reaching ramifications, such as swamping federal courts with challenges by state attorneys general and subjecting some migrants — including children and teens — to rapid detention and deportation, News From The States reports. The legislation, the Laken Riley Act, S. 5, would greatly expand detention of immigrants and give state attorneys general broad discretion to challenge federal immigration policy if enacted into law. Experts are concerned that the bill would aid President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to enact mass deportations by requiring the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain a noncitizen on an arrest, charge or conviction of petty theft — a response to the murder of the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student for whom the measure is named. Laken Riley went out on a run and her roommates became concerned after she did not return home. Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela, last month was convicted of her murder and received a life sentence. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he allegedly entered the country illegally in 2022 and was charged with shoplifting but was not detained by ICE.
The bill’s lead sponsor, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, said on the Senate floor before the procedural vote that the bill “is necessary as it is straightforward.” “I want to be very clear, only individuals that would be subject to this bill are criminal illegal aliens,” Britt said. “These individuals crossed our border illegally, and then they committed a crime after getting here. That's who we're talking about.” But immigration attorneys argue that the bill would not only affect undocumented people, but would ensnare some immigrants with legal status, lead to the detainment of children, challenge the release and bond decisions of immigration judges and have the potential to interfere with the issuing of visas on the international stage. The bill, in its definition of “immigrants who are inadmissible” as those who are affected, is problematic, they say. “This will fuel mass deportation,” Nithya Nathan-Pineau, a policy attorney and strategist with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said. She said that if someone is detained and they’re not able to defend themselves — because immigrants are not guaranteed a lawyer under U.S. law — they could easily end up with a conviction.
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