Senate Democrats are facing an early test on how much to cooperate with President-elect Donald Trump and his new GOP majority with the so-called Laken Riley Act, which would mandate that the Department of Homeland Security detain and potentially deport undocumented immigrants accused — but not necessarily convicted — of nonviolent crimes such as trespassing and theft.
A version of the legislation has already passed the House after 48 Democrats voted with the entire Republican caucus in support of it.
At least nine Democrats in the upper chamber, including co-sponsors Sens. John Fetterman, D-Penn., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., have already announced support for the bill. Most hail from swing states that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020 and then flipped to Trump in 2024.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has privately allowed members to negotiate amendments to the bill with their GOP counterparts, sources from a Tuesday caucus meeting told Axios. According to The New Republic, he will likely announce that the bill has sufficient Democratic support to move to debate.
The Laken Riley Act is named after a college student who was murdered last February by a Venezuelan immigrant who had previously been arrested for shoplifting and then paroled. Trump's comprehensive electoral college victory after a long campaign railing against the alleged chaos unleashed by immigration has apparently convinced many Democrats that supporting parts of his agenda is the only way to regain the trust of the American people.
“If we can’t get at least seven [votes] out of 47… then that’s a reason why we lost,” Fetterman told Fox News on Wednesday. “That’s one of why we lost, in part.”
One Democratic aide told NBC News that some lawmakers are done listening immigrant rights advocacy groups and opposing mass deportations. "This past election showed that’s not where a majority of Americans are at, and that Dems need to be clear they are against criminals — even if that means deporting an undocumented immigrant who committed a crime," the aide said.
Less obliging Democrats have warned that the legislation could muddle federal immigration policy while expediting mass deportations, noting that it sets a mere accusation as the standard for Department of Homeland Security detention — eliminating due process — and gives state attorneys general the power to sue the federal government over immigration policy.
"This bill would upend 28 years of mandatory immigration detention policy by requiring that any undocumented immigrant arrested for theft, larceny, or shoplifting be detained, even if they are never convicted or even charged with a crime," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., calling it a "radical departure from the current law."
Elvia Díaz, chief of the Arizona Republic's editorial team, wrote that the strategy is designed to "terrorize undocumented immigrants and root them out" by allowing local authorities to "stop them for anything, including a broken taillight, and turn them over to immigration."
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