We believe in a country that affords everyone due process, protects people seeking safety, and keeps communities together. Thus, the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights strongly condemns the U.S. House’s passage of the Laken Riley Act on Tuesday. We urge the U.S. Senate to reject this inhumane and dangerous bill.
The Laken Riley Act would weaken long-established due process rights. It would undermine the principle that people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Worse, this bill would let activist state attorneys general file harmful, pointless lawsuits against the federal government over immigration policy just to score political points.
This proposed legislation will not address concerns about how to make communities safer after Laken Riley’s tragic death. Instead, it will harm thousands of immigrants and their families, create further gridlock and chaos in federal courts, and violate constitutional due process and federalism concerns. The U.S. Senate should do the right thing for immigrants and the Constitution by blocking the Laken Riley Act from ever becoming law.
“This bill is a misguided and harmful change to our immigration laws that will have a cruel, disproportionate impact upon noncitizens and their families,” said Peter Alfredson, Senior Attorney at Amica Center. “By subjecting noncitizens to prolonged, mandatory immigration detention without a bond hearing, simply because they were arrested or charged with a nonviolent theft or shoplifting offense, this bill would dramatically harm immigrant communities.”
We ask that you join us, especially Virginia residents. Please help us fight this harmful legislation. We do not have much time: call your Senators TODAY and demand they vote AGAINST the Laken Riley Act. Find your Senator’s contact information here.
Learn more about what this bill entails…
Greenlighting increases in Trump’s mass deportations & detention plans without due process.
This legislation would require the government to detain noncitizens without the right to a bond hearing for months or years, in violation of due process, solely because they have been arrested for or charged with nonviolent theft or shoplifting offenses. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would have unfettered power to lock up noncitizens indefinitely, many of whom would otherwise not face any jail time in the state criminal system for the same alleged offenses.
This proposal would radically depart from the current legal framework, which typically only allows ICE to mandatorily detain noncitizens without review by an immigration judge in a bond hearing when they have actually been convicted of a crime. By dramatically expanding mandatory immigration detention, this bill would harm thousands of noncitizens, including people with valid immigration status, such as those who have won asylum and other forms of fear-based immigration relief.
Emboldening state attorneys general over federal immigration matters.
In addition, this legislation would unconstitutionally allow state attorneys general to sue the federal government over any purported failure to detain noncitizens with these nonviolent theft or shoplifting charges. This provision will enable reactionary state-level politicians who otherwise have no authority to enforce federal immigration laws to engage in unchecked litigation that seriously undermines the federal government’s nationwide immigration priorities and enforcement. These lawsuits will only increase the dysfunction and gridlock in federal courts and make it harder for the government to meaningfully address the very real concerns impacting our immigration system.