The U.S. Senate has passed the Laken Riley Act with support from the both Georgia senators.
The act would require the Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented immigrants for robbery, shoplifting or burglary at the point of arrest, and allow state attorneys general to sue the federal government for failing to enforce immigration law.
Final passage through Congress is still up in the air as some Democrats expressed a desire to amend the bill.
Republican representative Mike Collins introduced the act. His district covers Athens, Georgia, where 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley was murdered in February 2024 while on a morning run. Jose Ibarra, a migrant from Venezuela who crossed the border illegally, was found guilty in Riley’s murder. He was arrested in New York City and Athens prior to the murder, but was never detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Every part of our system failed Laken that day,” Collins said during floor debate on the act. “There’s nothing we can do to bring her back, but I tell you what, we can make sure this never happens again.”
All Georgia Republican representatives approved the act, with Democrat Lucy McBath joining them. Both Georgia Democratic senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, approved the act as well.
Policy specialists warn this act lays the groundwork for encroaching on people’s right to due process in the U.S. and gives states the power to force federal policy.
“When we propose bills like this that require the indefinite detention of somebody who has simply an arrest in a case that may not even lead to a charge, it’s ultimately eroding due process rights,” said Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel with the nonprofit American Immigration Council.
Orozco said the federal government already has the right to detain an immigrant after an arrest if they are deemed a public safety threat, and resources should instead be used to invest in immigration courts to process asylum and deportation proceedings more efficiently.
“Making it mandatory would massively expand detention in the country,” he said. “This would require the government to insert so many more resources into the system right now.”
In addition to spending more tax dollars to increase the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers, Orozco said these detainments will add to the more than 3 million case backlog U.S. immigration courts face today.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association also expressed concern in a statement about provisions that would allow states to challenge the federal government on immigration enforcement in court that could result in rulings making state-driven immigration decisions apply country-wide.
Alabama Republican Katie Britt sponsored the act in the Senate. She read a statement from Allyson and John Phillips, Riley’s mom and step-dad.
“It is impossible to fully describe what was taken from Laken and from our family on February 22, 2024. Laken’s life was abundantly and exceptionally full of promise,” Riley’s parents said in the statement. “Not only the people who knew and loved her lost a beautiful soul but so did the world.”
