On Wednesday, the final endorsement for an immigration bill was delivered by the House. This legislation mandates the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent offenses, thereby paving the way for President Donald Trump’s initial legislative victory. The passage of The Laken Riley Act, named in memory of a murdered nursing student from Georgia, points towards a noticeable shift in the immigration discussion towards right-wing views after Trump’s election. Despite immigration long being a contentious issue in Congress, many Democrats perceived as politically fragile banded together with Republicans to propel the stern scheme forward, resulting in a 263-156 voting record.
Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt underscored the rarity of such unity on border and internal challenges. She pointed out that consensus on these issues has eluded the government for years.
Although the legislation demands a significant escalation in the capacity of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it doesn’t allocate additional funds for the same.
Simultaneously, the newly inaugurated president has been instituting a range of executive orders aimed at tightening the Mexican border and deporting numerous immigrants without a permanent legal status. Republican congressional leaders have expressed their intent to mimic these steps; however, their main hurdle is securing necessary funding for these stringent implementations.
Underpinning the bid to criticize the southern border management of former President Joe Biden, House Republicans, backed by Democrats, initially passed the bill last year. However, it remained stagnant in the Democrat-majority Senate.
This year, with both chambers of Congress under their control, Republicans have declared the bill as a priority. As this revised version of the legislation found its way into the Senate, it garnered support from both sides of the aisle, replicating the sentiment when it was re-voted in the House.
Recent polling data from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research reveals that most U.S. adults are in favor of deporting immigrants convicted for violent crimes. However, the agreement diminishes when it involves the deportation of immigrants who are unlawfully present in the U.S., but not convicted of any crime—approximately 37% are in support.
New York Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi confirmed that while the bill isn’t flawless, it sends a direct message: criminals must be deported.
According to this law, federal officers will be obligated to detain any immigrant arrested or accused of offenses such as shoplifting. The Senate extended the scope of the law, making it applicable to those charged with crimes such as assaulting a police officer or offenses resulting in injury or death.
Moreover, the legislation empowers state attorneys general to file lawsuits against the federal government for damages resulting from federal immigration decisions. This endows states with increased control over the immigration policy, especially interesting considering both Trump and Biden administrations faced opposition from states on their immigration policies. Despite Democratic efforts to strike this provision from the Senate bill, they were unsuccessful.
Implementing these new regulations might prove challenging for the Trump administration without further Congressional funding later this year. Republicans are currently strategizing to pass their priorities through Congress via a method known as budget reconciliation.
The enormous task of deporting the majority of unauthorized immigrants present in the United States has been set forth by Trump. This undertaking, marked as the largest domestic logistical venture in our lifetime by Ken Cuccinelli, requires a drastic increase in immigration judges, prosecutors, and other staff. Trump has also suggested the usage of military resources to execute these mass deportations.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates the cost of implementing the Laken Riley Act to be around $26.9 billion in the first year alone, which includes an extra 110,000 ICE detention beds.
The lack of allocated funding in the bill was heavily criticized by most Democrats, describing it as a signal that it’s a disjointed effort that wouldn’t significantly improve the immigration system, but instead burden federal agencies with additional responsibilities. The bill has been deemed a non-funded mandate that will fail to achieve its promise of detaining serious criminals by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. Other critics raised concerns that it undermines due process rights for immigrants, including minors or participants in the Deferred Action for Unaccompanied Minors program. These critics, including Sen. Alex Padilla, cautioned that federal agents would be compelled to focus on detaining immigrants accused of minor offenses like shoplifting over those committed violent felonies. Conversely, research indicates immigrants are less likely to commit violent crimes compared to U.S. natives, a fact that many advocates of restrictive immigration policies contest.