Tell our Senators: Vote NO on the Laken Riley Act!
Call BOTH of your Senators.
Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.
Please vote no on the Laken Riley Act. This is a MAGA anti-immigrant bill that casts all immigrants as dangerous criminals and denies basic due process to noncitizens. This is a draconian overreach and part of MAGA Republicans’ racist anti-immigrant messaging; as your constituent, I want you to oppose it.
Background
Laken Riley was a nursing student in Georgia who was killed by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela who had previously been arrested for shoplifting. MAGA campaigns used her murder to portray all immigrants as dangerous criminals, to criticize President Biden’s immigration policies, and to distract from Trump’s sinking of a Republican immigration-reform bill that Democrats had agreed to pass.
The Laken Riley Act is the Republicans’ new bill to continue the same hate campaign and use it to pass draconian legislation. We hold that this bill is rotten to the core and should not be passed in any form.
The Immigration Justice Campaign (established in 2017 as a collaboration between the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association) describes the bill’s extreme provisions in more detail:
“This bill would result in mandatory detention for individuals arrested for certain crimes including petty crimes such as shoplifting, even if no criminal charges were ever brought. Even a simple arrest without any further prosecution could lead to the indefinite incarceration of certain noncitizens, including undocumented people and DACA recipients.
Additionally, this bill would authorize states to seek federal court orders forcing the executive branch to detain and deport specific people, overturn individual humanitarian parole decisions, and cease issuing visas to entire countries.
For example, the bill includes a provision authorizing state lawsuits to seek sweeping visa bans on so-called “recalcitrant countries”—countries that decline to accept their citizens back when removed from the U.S.
The provisions in this bill violate basic tenets of the Constitution and threaten to upend our immigration legal system, with potential impacts reaching from the local to the international level.”
The sweeping state enforcement provisions of the Laken Riley Act would allow individual states to dictate immigration policy from the hyperlocal level to the international stage. Federal judges would be required to prioritize these lawsuits and to disregard regular rules on “standing,” a judicial principle rooted in the Constitution that a party to a lawsuit must show that they were injured to move forward with their claim. These provisions threaten to transform our system of federal supremacy and cause significant harm to United States diplomatic relations, as well as overwhelm the courts with a flood of lawsuits.
Importantly, every single administration from both political parties has relied upon executive agency discretion to release some people in immigration detention, as there are always more people who might be detained than detention beds to hold them. Nevertheless, the Laken Riley Act could effectively strip the federal government of its authority to make decisions even in these individual cases — decisions made by line-level immigration officers who operate in a world of limited resources for immigration enforcement.
In addition to tying the hands of federal immigration agencies, these provisions violate basic tenets of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has consistently held that the federal government is the supreme authority when it comes to immigration enforcement. Just 18 months ago, the Supreme Court held in an 8-1 decision that federal courts cannot order the executive branch to take specific immigration enforcement actions or dictate broader enforcement discretion policy.
From the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights:
NNIRR strongly condemns the passage of the Laken Riley Act and urges community members to contact their senators to oppose S.5. This harmful bill would criminalize immigrant communities, violate human rights, and erode constitutional protections. The bill has just passed the House and is now heading to the Senate, where several Democratic Senators have already expressed their support. Unfortunately, few senators are thoroughly examining the substance of the bill and are overlooking its unconstitutional provisions.
We urge community members to call or email their senators TODAY and urge them to vote NO on S.5 the Laken Riley Act. Click here for a full list of senators and their contact information.
The legislation is a clear manifestation of racism and xenophobia, not only against undocumented migrants but also against those with vulnerable immigration statuses. If enacted, it would subject immigrants to prolonged, indefinite detention without bond based on mere allegations of petty offenses, while granting states the ability to override the federal executive branch’s immigration policy.
In short, this initiative would promote a harmful and deeply discriminatory framework, through the following provisions:
Limits on Executive Branch Power: The bill would severely restrict the executive branch’s ability to shape immigration policy by allowing states to sue over a wide range of immigration actions. This would lead to constant litigation from opposing states, making it difficult for administrations to implement new policies.
Creates a Constitutional Chaos in Courts: The bill would overwhelm federal courts by granting states blanket standing to sue over immigration policies, regardless of their direct interest. This would flood the courts with cases, violating the constitutional principle that courts should only hear disputes with actual harm.
Promotes Duplication of Existing Authority: The bill unnecessarily expands detention authority by mandating detention for individuals arrested for theft-related offenses, even though the government already has the power to detain anyone in deportation proceedings. It would require detention without bond hearings, even for minor offenses.
Leads to Due Process Violations: Requiring no-bond detention based solely on arrest or charges raises serious due process concerns, as it denies individuals the opportunity for a fair hearing. This could lead to prolonged detention of innocent individuals and would exacerbate racial disparities, as people of color—primarily Black and Brown individuals—are disproportionately arrested.
Generates Disruption of Criminal Prosecutions: The bill would disrupt criminal prosecutions by requiring immigration authorities to detain individuals after a theft-related arrest, even if a criminal judge has already released them on bail. This would complicate transportation to court and hinder prosecutors’ ability to proceed with cases.
Republicans and their right-leaning Democratic allies cannot credibly promote prosperity or freedom while pursuing policies that pander to populist—and racist, xenophobic—fears targeting entire groups within our communities. Branding migrants as “criminals” and denying not only their humanity but also their personhood before the law, falsely implies that our country has no obligations under the U.S. Constitution or international law.
References
Padilla says he is a ‘no’ on Laken Riley Act ‘as currently written’, The Hill, 1/12/2024
This New Immigration Bill That’s About to Pass Is a Horrifying Trojan Horse, Slate, 1/10/2025
Legal expert says the bipartisan Laken Riley Act is unjust, wasteful and a Trojan horse : NPR
NPR Host Scott Simon interviews George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin, who's also a Cato Institute scholar, who argues in the libertarian "Reason Magazine" that the Laken Riley Act is unjust.